
Class ^^/-r^ 
Book 



^ 



,6 



f<grightN'' ■ ^ t^T 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

AND OTHER ADDRESSES 

IN ENGLAND 





Jj'^^^^lK^C^^ 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



AND OTHER ADDRESSES 
IN ENGLAND 



BY 

JOSEPH H. CHOATE 




NEW YORK 
THE CENTURY CO 
1910 






Copyright, 1910, by 
The Century Co. 

Published, October, 1910 



Electrotyped and Printed by 
C. H. Simonds & Co., Boston 



ICU273919 



PREFACE 

TOURING my long residence in London as Am- 
-■-^ bassador of the United States, it was my\ 
good fortune to be brought into close contact with 
the British people, which gave me a unique oppor- 
tunity to study their habits and characteristics, 
and their social and political institutions. My one 
instruction from President McKinley, when he 
handed me my letter of credence, was to promote 
the welfare of both countries by cultivating the 
most friendly relations between them. To this 
end I visited many parts of Great Britain, and 
wherever I went I found this message of good 
will most cordially reciprocated. I thought that 
one effective way of carrying out this instruction 
was to do what I could to make the people better 
acquainted with the United States, its history, its 
institutions and its great men, which would show 
them that there is no radical difference between 
us, and that under different Constitutional forms 
we maintain with equal fidelity the same great 
causes of liberty and justice and human progress. 
The addresses which are contained in this vol- 



PREFACE 

Time are selected from many which were delivered 
in pursuit of this general object. 

The four great Americans whom I selected for 
illustration in this way, Lincoln, Franklin, Hamil- 
ton and Emerson, were certainly no better known 
to the average Englishman, than the leading public 
men of Great Britain of corresponding periods are 
known to the average American, but great interest 
was manifested in hearing about them. 

Lincoln, who had been the subject of much 
hostility and abuse in his lifetime, was glorified 
in England as in all other countries after his 
death as the great martyr and emancipator. 
But the marvellous story of his life, with its 
strange vicissitudes and tragical incidents, was 
not at all familiar. It was hardly possible under 
the EnglisTi system of government that such a 
character and career could be developed, but none 
the less were they eager to hear everything about 
a man whose record seemed little short of mirac- 
ulous. When they realized the fact that the 
emancipation of four million slaves, as the only 
means of preserving the existence of the nation, 
was all his work, their enthusiasm for him knew 
no bounds, and as English history affords no 
parallel example of a man rising by his own ef- 
forts, and the events of his time, from such 
humble beginnings to such a pinnacle of lasting 

vi 



PEEFACE 

fame, they were proud to claim him as one of 
the great treasures of the English-speaking race. 

I found no little prejudice still existing against 
Franklin, a survival, I suppose, of the bitterness 
of our revolutionary struggle, in which he came 
into much closer contact with England both before 
and during the war than any other American ; — 
and then the transmission and publication of the 
Hutchinson letters had never been quite forgiven 
or forgotten. But as I believed that their trans- 
mission was, as he declared himself, one of the 
best actions of his life, and their publication was 
in violation of his injunctions, I was glad to have 
an opportunity in speaking of him at Birmingham 
to develope at length his wonderful career, as 
first, a most stalwart champion of the British 
Empire, and afterwards, when peace and union 
were no longer possible, as one of the greatest of 
American citizens. 

Hamilton was comparatively unknown, except 
to lawyers, scholars and great readers. There 
had been a recent rehabilitation of his fame in a 
fascinating work of fiction, which had been widely 
read in England as in America, but the real facts 
of the great work of that surpassing genius, in 
upholding the arms of Washington in the war, in 
bringing about the Convention of 1787 which made 
the Federal Constitution, in securing its adoption 

vii 



PREFACE 

by the people, and in organizing our government 
under it were not widely known, and it was a great 
pleasure to tell this wonderful story to the stu- 
dents of the University of Edinburgh. 

Emerson is a general favorite among all read- 
ing and thinking people in Great Britain, and his 
reputation as poet and philosopher is well recog- 
nized and established, but I do not think that the 
extent and power of his influence on public ques- 
tions in great crises was fully appreciated, and 
it was a source of pride and satisfaction to set 
forth some of his most thrilling utterances in the 
days of the slavery agitation and the war, when 
in clarion tones he appealed to the conscience of 
his countrymen. 

No subject relating to America interested Eng- 
lish and Scotch people more than the Supreme 
Court of the United States and its place in the 
Constitution. Even learned lawyers and jurists 
found it difficult to understand how two distinct 
and independent governments could coexist over 
the same people and the same territory without 
clashing, until the power of the Supreme Court 
to adjust all differences between State and Fed- 
eral jurisdictions was taken into consideration; 
and nowhere is greater credit given to the wisdom 
of the framers of the Federal Constitution with 
all its safeguards for property and liberty, than 

viii 



PREFACE 

by Englishmen, who nevertheless recognize the 
omnipotence of Parliament as the cardinal prin- 
ciple of their own political system. 

Education in America is a subject not only of 
great curiosity but of profound interest where the 
general subject of education is being constantly 
agitated, and in respect to which each country has 
much to learn from others. The Board of Educa- 
tion in Great Britain had recently published two 
large volumes devoted to its condition and prog- 
ress in America — a very great international com- 
pliment — and when the opportunity came to me 
to speak at the opening of the Summer Schools at 
Oxford on the same theme I gladly availed myself 
of it. 

It was also a satisfaction to demonstrate to the 
Sir Walter Scott Club of Edinburgh the love and 
respect in which that great writer is held through- 
out America, and what an elevating and educa- 
tional influence he has exercised there. 

The Centenary of the British and Foreign Bible 
Society was an important international event in 
which it was my privilege to participate both as 
Ambassador and as Special Delegate of the Amer- 
ican Bible Society. 

The address at Lincoln's Inn on the occasion of 
the dinner tendered to me by the Bench and Bar 
of England, and my farewell address at the Man- 

ix 



PREFACE 

sion House at the Lord Mayor's Banquet gave me 
opportunities, which I gladly embraced, to ex- 
press, on my own behalf and that of all my coun- 
trymen, gratitude for the generous hospitality 
and cordial welcome which had been always ex- 
tended to me as their representative. 

As a loyal son of Harvard it was an immense 
gratification to leave behind me Mr. LaFarge's 
window in Southwark Cathedral as a memorial 
of John Harvard, and to enjoy the assistance in 
the ceremony of His Grace the Archbishop of 
Canterbury, the Bishop of Southwark and of Mr. 
Bryce, who was so soon to come to us as His 
Majesty's brilliant and popular Ambassador, 

In the hope that these efforts have done some- 
thing, however little, in the language of President 
McKinley, * ' to promote the welfare of both coun- 
tries " I dedicate the volume to my friends on 
both sides of the water. 

Stockbridge, September, 1910. 



CONTENTS 

PAGK 

Preface v 

Abraham Lincoln 3 

Address delivered before the Edinburgh Philosophical 
Institution, November \Wi, 1900 

Benjamin Franklin 47 

Inaugural address, October 23rd, 1903, before the Bir- 
mingham and Midland Institute. 

Alexander Hamilton 97 

Inaugural address March 19th, 1904, before the Associated 
Societies of the University of Edinburgh 

Ralph Waldo Emerson 141 

Address at the Passmore Edwards Institute, June 15th, 
1903 

The Supreme Court op the United States . 157 
Address delivered before the Political and Social Education 
League, May 13th, 1903. 

Education in America 199 

Inaugural address, August 1st, 1903, at the opening of 
the summer meeting at Oxford. 

Sir Walter Scott 231 

Address before the Edinburgh Sir Walter Scott Club, Novem- 
ber nth, 1899. 

The English Bible 243 

Address at the Centenary of the British and Foreign Bible 
Society, London, May, 1904. 

Address at Dinner given to Mr. Choate by the 
Bench and Bar op England .... 257 
At Lincoln's Inn, April lAth, 1905 

xi 



xii CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Farewell 273 

Address at the Farewell Banquet given to Mr. Choate, by 
the Lord Mayor at the Mansion House May 5th, 1905 

John Harvard 289 

Address at the unveiling of the Harvard Memorial Win- 
dow presented by Mr. Choate to the Dean and Chapter of 
St. Saviour's Church {Southwark Cathedral), May 
23rd, 1905. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Address delivered be/ore the Edinburgh Philosophical 
Institution, November 13th, 1900. 

WHEN you asked me to deliver the Inaugural 
Address on this occasion, I recognized that 
I owed this compliment to the fact that I was the 
official representative of America — and in select- 
ing a subject I ventured to think that I might in- 
terest you for an hour in a brief study in popular 
Government, as illustrated by the life of the most 
American of all Americans. I therefore offer no 
apology for asking your attention to Abraham 
Lincoln — to his unique character and the part 
he bore in two important achievements of modern 
history: the preservation of the integrity of the 
American Union and the Emancipation of the 
colored race. 

During his brief term of power, he was prob- 
ably the object of more abuse, vilification and 
ridicule than any other man in the world; but 
when he fell by the hand of an assassin, at the 
very moment of his stupendous victory, all the 
nations of the earth vied with one another in 
paying homage to his character; and the thirty- 
five years that have since elapsed have established 
his place in history as one of the great benefactors 
not of his own country alone, but of the human 
race. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

One of many noble utterances upon tlie occasion 
of his death was that in which '' Punch " made 
its magnanimous recantation of the spirit with 
which it had pursued him : — 

' * Beside this corpse that bears for winding sheet 
The stars and stripes he hved to rear anew, 
Between the mourners at his head and feet 
Say, scurrile jester, is there room for you? 

Yes, he had Hved to shame me from my sneer 
To lame my pencil, and confute my pen — 

To make me own this hind — of princes peer. 
This rail-splitter — a true born king of men. ' ' 

Fiction can furnish no match for the romance of 
his life, and biography will be searched in vain 
for such startling vicissitudes of fortune, so great 
power and glory won out of such humble begin- 
nings and adverse circumstances. 

Doubtless, you are all familiar with the salient 
points of his extraordinary career. In the zenith 
of his fame he was the wise, patient, courageous, 
successful ruler of men; exercising more power 
than any monarch of his time, not for himself, 
but for the good of the people who had placed it 
in his hands ; commander-in-chief of a vast mili- 
tary power, which waged with ultimate success 
the greatest war of the century; the triumphant 
champion of popular G-overnment, the deliverer 
of four millions of his fellow men from bondage ; 
honored by mankind as Statesman, President and 
Liberator. 

4 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Let us glance now at the first half of the brief 
life, of which this was the glorious and happy 
consummation. Nothing could be more squalid 
and miserable than the home in which Abraham 
Lincoln was born — a one-roomed cabin without 
floor or window in what was then the wilderness 
of Kentucky, in the heart of that frontier life 
which swiftly moved westward from the Alle- 
ghanies to the Mississippi, always in advance of 
schools and churches, of books and money, of 
railroads and newspapers, of all things which are 
generally regarded as the comforts and even 
necessaries of life. His father, ignorant, needy 
and thriftless, content if he could keep soul and 
body together for himself and his family, was 
ever seeking, without success, to better his un- 
happy condition by moving on from one such 
scene of dreary desolation to another. The rude 
society which surrounded them was not much 
better. The struggle for existence was hard, and 
absorbed all their energies. They were fighting 
the forest, the wild beast and the retreating sav- 
age. From the time when he could barely handle 
tools until he attained his majority, Lincoln's 
life was that of a simple farm laborer, poorly 
clad, housed and fed, at work either on his father's 
wretched farm, or hired out to neighboring 
farmers. But in spite, or perhaps by means, of 
this rude environment, he grew to be a stalwart 
giant, reaching six feet four at nineteen, and 
fabulous stories are told of his feats of strength. 
With the growth of this mighty frame began that 

5 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

strange education which in his ripening years 
was to qualify him for the great destiny that 
awaited him, and the development of those mental 
faculties and moral endowments, which, by the 
time he reached middle life, were to make him the 
sagacious, patient and triumphant leader of a 
great nation in the crisis of its fate. His whole 
schooling, obtained during such odd times as 
could be spared from grinding labor, did not 
amount in all to as much as one year, and the 
quality of the teaching was of the lowest possible 
grade, including only the elements of reading, 
writing and ciphering. But out of these simple 
elements, when rightly used by the right man, 
education is achieved; and Lincoln knew how to 
use them. As so often happens, he seemed to 
take warning from his father's unfortunate ex- 
ample. Untiring industry, an insatiable thirst 
for knowledge, and an ever-growing desire to rise 
above his surroundings, were early manifesta- 
tions of his character. 

Books were almost unknown in that community, 
but the Bible was in every house, and somehow 
or other Pilgrim's Progress, ^sop's Fables, a 
History of the United States, and a Life of Wash- 
ington fell into his hands. He trudged on foot 
many miles through the wilderness to borrow an 
English Grammar, and is said to have devoured 
greedily the contents of the Statutes of Indiana 
that fell in his way. These few volumes he read 
and re-read — and his power of assimilation was 
great. To be shut in with a few books and 

6 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

to master them thoroughly sometimes does more 
for the development of mind and character, than 
freedom to range at large, in a cursory and indis- 
criminate way, through wide domains of litera- 
ture. This youth's mind, at any rate, was thor- 
oughly saturated with Biblical knowledge and 
Biblical language, which, in after life, he used 
with great readiness and effect. But it was the 
constant use of the little knowledge which he had 
that developed and exercised his mental powers. 
After the hard day 's work was done, while others 
slept, he toiled on, always reading or writing. 
From an early age he did his own thinking and 
made up his own mind — invaluable traits in the 
future President. Paper was such a scarce com- 
modity that, by the evening firelight, he would 
write and cipher on the back of a wooden shovel, 
and then shave it off to make room for more. 
By-and-by, as he approached manhood, he began 
speaking in the rude gatherings of the neighbor- 
hood, and so laid the foundation of that art of 
persuading his fellow men, which was one rich 
result of his education, and one great secret of 
his subsequent success. 

Accustomed as we are in these days of steam 
and telegraphs to have every intelligent boy sur- 
vey the whole world each morning before break- 
fast, and inform himself as to what is going on 
in every nation, it is hardly possible to conceive 
how benighted and isolated was the condition of 
the community at Pigeon Creek in Indiana, of 
which the family of Lincoln's father formed a 

7 



ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

part, or how eagerly an ambitious and high- 
spirited boy, such as he, must have yearned to 
escape. The first glimpse that he ever got of 
any world beyond the narrow confines of his 
home was in 1828, at the age of nineteen, when a 
neighbor employed him to accompany his son 
down the river to New Orleans to dispose of a 
flat boat of produce — a commission which he 
discharged with great success. 

Shortly after his return from this first ex- 
cursion into the outer world, his father, tired 
of failure in Indiana, packed his family and 
all his worldly goods into a single wagon drawn 
by two yoke of oxen, and after a fourteen 
days' tramp through the wilderness, pitched his 
camp once more in Illinois. Here Abraham, hav- 
ing come of age and being now his own master, 
rendered the last service of his minority by 
ploughing the fifteen acre lot and splitting from 
the tall walnut trees of the primeval forest enough 
rails to surround the little clearing with a fence. 
Such was the meagre outfit of this coming leader 
of men, at the age when the future British Prime 
Minister or Statesman emerges from the Univer- 
sity as a double first or senior wrangler, with 
every advantage that high training and broad cul- 
ture and association with the wisest and the best 
of men and women can give, and enters upon some 
form of public service on the road to usefulness 
and honor, the University course being only the 
first stage of the public training. So Lincoln, at 
twenty-one, had just begun his preparation for 

8 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the public life to which he soon began to aspire. 
For some years yet he must continue to earn his 
daily bread by the sweat of his brow, having ab- 
solutely no means, no home, no friend to consult. 
More farm work as a hired hand, a clerkship in 
a village store, the running of a mill, another 
trip to New Orleans on a flat boat of his own con- 
triving, a pilot's berth on the river: these were 
the means by which he subsisted until, in the 
summer of 1832, when he was twenty-tliree years 
of age, an event occurred which gave him public 
recognition. 

The Black Hawk War broke out, and the 
Governor of Illinois calling for volunteers to 
repel the band of savages whose leader bore that 
name, Lincoln enlisted and was elected captain 
by his comrades, among whom he had already 
established his supremacy by signal feats of 
strength and more than one successful single 
combat. During the brief hostilities he was en- 
gaged in no battle and won no military glory, but 
his local leadership was established. The same 
year he offered himself as a candidate for the 
Legislature of Illinois, but failed at the polls. 
Yet his vast popularity with those who knew him 
was manifest. The District consisted of several 
counties, but the unanimous vote of the people 
of his own county was for Lincoln. Another 
unsuccessful attempt at store-keeping was fol- 
lowed by better luck at survejang, until his horse 
and instruments were levied upon under execu- 
tion for the debts of his business adventure. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

I have been thus detailed in sketching his early- 
years because upon these strange foundations the 
structure of his great fame and service was built. 
In the place of a school and university training 
fortune substituted these trials, hardships and 
struggles as a preparation for the great work 
which he had to do. It turned out to be exactly 
what the emergency required. Ten years instead 
at the public school and the University certainly 
never could have fitted this man for the unique 
work which was to be thrown upon him. Some 
other Moses would have had to lead us to our 
Jordan, to the sight of our promised land of 
liberty. 

At the age of twenty-five he became a member 
of the Legislature of Illinois, and so continued 
for eight years, and, in the meantime, qualified 
himself by reading such law books as he could 
borrow at random — for he was too poor to buy 
any — to be called to the Bar. For his second 
quarter of a century — during which a single 
term in Congress introduced him into the arena 
of national questions — he gave himself up to 
law and politics. In spite of his soaring ambition, 
his two years in Congress gave him no premoni- 
tion of the great destiny that awaited him, and 
at its close, in 1849, we find him an unsuccessful 
applicant to the President for appointment as 
Commissioner of the General Land Office — a 
purely administrative Bureau; a fortunate es- 
cape for himself and for his country. Year by 
year his knowledge and power, his experience and 

10 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

reputation extended, and his mental faculties 
seemed to grow by what they fed on. His power 
of persuasion, which had always been marked, 
was developed to an extraordinary degree, now 
that he became engaged in congenial questions 
and subjects. Little by little he rose to promi- 
nence at the Bar, and became the most effective 
public speaker in the West. Not that he possessed 
any of the graces of the orator ; but his logic was 
invincible, and his clearness and force of state- 
ment impressed upon his hearers the convictions 
of his honest mind, while his broad sympathies 
and sparkling and genial humor made him a 
universal favorite as far and as fast as his 
acquaintance extended. 

These twenty years that elapsed from the time 
of his establishment as a lawyer and legislator 
in Springfield, the new capital of Illinois, fur- 
nished a fitting theatre for the development and 
display of his great faculties, and, with his new 
and enlarged opportunities, he obviously grew in 
mental stature in this second period of his career, 
as if to compensate for the absolute lack of ad- 
vantages under which he had suffered in youth. 
As his powers enlarged, his reputation extended, 
for he was always before the people, felt a warm 
sympathy with all that concerned them, took a 
zealous part in the discussion of every public 
question, and made his personal influence ever 
more widely and deeply felt. 

My brethren of the legal profession will natu- 
rally ask me, how could this rough backwoodsman, 

11 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

whose youth had been spent in the forest or on 
the farm and the flat boat, without culture or 
training, education or study, by the random read- 
ing, on the wing, of a few miscellaneous law books, 
become a learned and accomplished lawyer 1 Well, 
he never did. He never would have earned his 
salt as a Writer for the Signet, nor have won 
a place as advocate in the Court of Session, where 
the technique of the profession has reached its 
highest perfection, and centuries of learning and 
precedent are involved in the equipment of a 
lawyer. Dr. Holmes, when asked by an anxious 
young mother, '^ When should the education of 
a child begin? " replied, '' Madam, at least two 
centuries before it is born! " and so I am sure 
it is with the Scots lawyer. 

But not so in Illinois in 1840. Between 1830 
and 1880, its population increased twenty-fold, 
and when Lincoln began practising law in Spring- 
field in 1837, life in Illinois was very crude and 
simple, and so were the Courts and the admin- 
istration of justice. Books and libraries were 
scarce. But the people loved justice, upheld the 
law and followed the Courts, and soon found their 
favorites among the advocates. The fundamental 
principles of the Common Law, as set forth by 
Blackstone and Chitty, were not so difficult to 
acquire ; and brains, common sense, force of char- 
acter, tenacity of purpose, ready wit and power 
of speech did the rest, and supplied all the defi- 
ciencies of learning. 

The lawsuits of those days were extremely 

12 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

simple, and the principles of natural justice were 
mainly relied on to dispose of them at the Bar 
and on the Bench, without resort to technical 
learning. Eailroads, corporations absorbing the 
chief business of the community; combined and 
inherited wealth, with all the subtle and intricate 
questions they breed, had not yet come in — and 
so the professional agents and the equipment 
which they require were not needed. But there 
were many highly educated and powerful men at 
the Bar of Illinois, even in those early days, whom 
the spirit of enterprise had carried there in 
search of fame and fortune. It was by constant 
contact and conflict with these that Lincoln ac- 
quired professional strength and skill. Every 
community and every age creates its own Bar, 
entirely adequate for its present uses and neces- 
sities. So in Illinois, as the population and wealth 
of the State kept on doubling and quadrupling, its 
Bar presented a growing abundance of learning 
and science and technical skill. The early practi- 
tioners grew with its growth and mastered the 
requisite knowledge, Chicago soon grew to be 
one of the largest and richest and certainly the 
most intensely active city on the Continent, and 
if any of my professional friends here had gone 
there in Lincoln's later years, to try or argue a 
cause, or transact other business, with any idea 
that Edinburgh or London had a monopoly of 
legal learning, science or subtlety, they would 
certainly have found their mistake. 
In those early days in the West, every lawyer, 

13 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

especially every Court lawyer, was necessarily a 
politician, constantly engaged in the public dis- 
cussion of the many questions evolved from the 
rapid development of town, county, State and 
Federal affairs. Then and there, in this regard, 
public discussion supplied the place which the 
universal activity of the Press has since monopo- 
lized, and the public speaker who, by clearness, 
force, earnestness and wit, could make himself 
felt on the questions of the day, would rapidly 
come to the front. In the absence of that im- 
mense variety of popular entertainments which 
now feed the public taste and appetite, the people 
found their chief amusement in frequenting the 
Courts and public and political assemblies. In 
either place, he who impressed, entertained and 
amused them most was the hero of the hour. 
They did not discriminate very carefully between 
the eloquence of the forum and the eloquence of 
the hustings. Human nature ruled in both alike, 
and he who was the most effective speaker in a 
political harangue was often retained as most 
likely to win in a cause to be tried or argued. 
And I have no doubt in this way many retainers 
came to Lincoln. Fees, money in any form, had 
no charms for him — in his eager pursuit of 
fame, he could not afford to make money. He 
was ambitious to distinguish himself by some 
great service to mankind, and this ambition for 
fame and real public service left no room for ava- 
rice in his composition. However much he earned, 
he seems to have ended every year hardly richer 

14 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

tlian lie began it, and yet as the years passed, 
fees came to him freely. One of £1,000 is re- 
corded — a very large professional fee at that 
time, even in any part of America, the paradise 
of lawyers. I lay great stress on Lincoln's career 
as a lawyer — much more than his biographers 
do — because in America a state of things exists 
wholly different from that which prevails in 
Great Britain. The profession of the law always 
has been — and is to this day — the principal 
avenue to public life; and I am sure that his 
training and experience in the Courts had much 
to do with the development of those forces of 
intellect and character which he soon displayed 
on a broader arena. 

It was in political controversy, of course, that 
he acquired his wide reputation, and made his 
deep and lasting impression upon the people of 
what had now become the powerful State of Illi- 
nois, and upon the people of the G-reat West, to 
whom the political power and control of the 
United States were already surely and swiftly 
passing from the older Eastern States. It was 
this reputation and this impression and the 
familiar knowledge of his character which had 
come to them from his local leadership, that hap- 
pily inspired the people of the West to present 
him as their candidate, and to press him upon the 
Republican Convention of 1860, as the fit and 
necessary leader in the struggle for life which 
was before the Nation. 

That struggle, as you all know, arose out of 

15 



ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

the terrible question of Slavery — and I must 
trust to your general knowledge of the history of 
that question to make intelligible the attitude 
and leadership of Lincoln as the champion of the 
hosts of freedom in the final contest. Negro 
slavery had been firmly established in the South- 
ern States from an early period of their history. 
In 1619, the year before the ' ' Mayflower ' ' landed 
our Pilgrim Fathers upon Plymouth Rock, a 
Dutch ship had discharged a cargo of African 
slaves at Jamestown in Virginia. All through the 
colonial period their importation had continued. 
A few had found their way into the Northern 
States, but in none of them in sufficient numbers 
to constitute danger or to afford a basis for polit- 
ical power. At the time of the adoption of the 
Federal Constitution, there is no doubt that the 
principal members of the Convention not only 
condemned slavery as a moral, social and polit- 
ical evil — but believed that by the suppression 
of the slave trade it was in the course of gradual 
extinction in the South, as it certainly was in the 
North. Washington, in his will, provided for the 
emancipation of his own slaves, and said to Jeffer- 
son that it ** was among his first wishes to see 
some plan adopted by which slavery in his country 
might be abolished. ' ' Jefferson said, referring to 
the institution, ** I tremble for my country when 
I think that God is just; that His justice cannot 
sleep for ever ' ' — and Franklin, Adams, Hamil- 
ton and Patrick Henry were all utterly opposed to 
it. But it was made the subject of a fatal com- 

16 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

promise in tlie Federal Constitution, whereby its 
existence was recognized in tlie States as a basis 
of representation, the prohibition of the importa- 
tion of slaves was postponed for twenty years, 
and the return of fugitive slaves provided for. 
But no imminent danger was apprehended from 
it till, by the invention of the cotton gin in 1792, 
cotton culture by negro labor became at once and 
for ever the leading industry of the South, and 
gave a new impetus to the importation of slaves, 
so that in 1808, when the constitutional prohibi- 
tion took effect, their numbers had vastly in- 
creased. From that time forward, slavery became 
the basis of a great political power, and the 
Southern States, under all circumstances and at 
every opportunity, carried on a brave and unre- 
lenting struggle for its maintenance and exten- 
sion. 

The conscience of the North was slow to rise 
against it, though bitter controversies from time 
to time took place. The Southern leaders threat- 
ened disunion if their demands were not complied 
with. To save the Union, compromise after com- 
promise was made; but each one in the end was 
broken. The Missouri Compromise, made in 
1820 upon the occasion of the admission of 
Missouri into the Union as a Slave State — 
whereby, in consideration of such admission, 
slavery was for ever excluded from the North- 
west Territory — was ruthlessly repealed in 1854, 
by a Congress elected in the interests of the slave 
power, the intent being to force slavery into that 

17 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

vast territory which had so long been dedicated 
to freedom. This challenge at last aroused the 
slumbering conscience and passion of the North, 
and led to the formation of the Eepublican party 
for the avowed purpose of preventing, by consti- 
tutional methods, the further extension of slavery. 
In its first campaign in 1856, though it failed 
to elect its candidates, it received a surprising 
vote and carried many of the States. No one 
could any longer doubt that the North had made 
up its mind that no threats of disunion should 
deter it from pressing its cherished purpose and 
performing its long neglected duty. From the 
outset, Lincoln was one of the most active and 
effective leaders and speakers of the new party, 
and the great debates between Lincoln and Doug- 
las in 1858, as the respective champions of the 
restriction and extension of slavery, attracted the 
attention of the whole country. Lincoln's power- 
ful arguments carried conviction everywhere. His 
moral nature was thoroughly aroused — his con- 
science was stirred to the quick. Unless slavery 
was wrong, nothing was wrong. Was each man, 
of whatever color, entitled to the fruits of his 
own labor, or could one man live in idle luxury 
by the sweat of another's brow, whose skin was 
darker ? He was an implicit believer in that prin- 
ciple of the Declaration of Independence that all 
men are vested with certain inalienable rights — 
the equal rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness. On this doctrine, he staked his case 
and carried it. We have time only for one or 

18 



ABBAHAM LINCOLN 

two sentences in which he struck the keynote of 
the contest : — 

* ' The real issue in this country is the eternal struggle 
between these two principles — right and wrong — 
throughout the world. They are the two principles that 
have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and 
will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common 
right of humanity, and the other the divine right of 
kings. It is the same principle in whatever shape it 
develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, ' You 
work and toil and earn bread and I'll eat it.' " 

He foresaw with unerring vision that the con- 
flict was inevitable and irrepressible — that one 
or the other, the right or the wrong, freedom or 
slavery, must ultimately prevail, and wholly pre- 
vail, throughout the country; and this was the 
principle that carried the war, once begun, to 
a fijiish. 

One sentence of his is immortal — 

** Under the operation of the policy of compromise, 
the slavery agitation has not only not ceased, but has 
constantly augmented. In my opinion it will not cease 
until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. * A 
house divided against itself cannot stand.' I believe 
this Government cannot endure permanently half slave 
and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dis- 
solved. I do not expect the house to fall — but I do 
expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one 
thing or all the other — either the opponents of slavery 
will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where 
the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the 

19 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push 
it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the 
States, old as well as new, North as well as South." 

During the entire decade, from 1850 to 1860, 
the agitation of the slavery question was at the 
boiling point, and events which have become his- 
torical continually indicated the near approach 
of the overwhelming storm. No sooner had the 
Compromise Acts of 1850 resulted in a temporary 
peace, which everybody said must be final and 
perpetual, than new outbreaks came. The forcible 
carrying away of fugitive slaves by Federal 
Troops from Boston agitated that ancient strong- 
hold of freedom to its foundations. The publica- 
tion of " Uncle Tom's Cabin," which truly ex- 
posed the frightful possibilities of the slave sys- 
tem ; the reckless attempts by force and fraud to 
establish it in Kansas against the will of the vast 
majority of the settlers; the beating of Sumner 
in the Senate Chamber for words spoken in de- 
bate; the Dred Scott decision in the Supreme 
Court, which made the nation realize that the 
slave power had at last reached the fountain of 
Federal justice; and finally the execution of 
John Brown, for his wild raid into Virginia, to 
invite the slaves to Y£il\y to the standard of free- 
dom which he unfurled : all these events tend to 
illustrate and confirm Lincoln's contention that 
the nation could not permanently continue half 
slave and half free, but must become all one thing 
or all the other. When John Brown lay under 

20 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

sentence of death, he declared that now he was 
sure that slavery must be wiped out in blood ; but 
neither he nor his executioners dreamt that 
within four years a million soldiers would be 
marching across the country for its final extirpa- 
tion, to the music of the war-song of the great 
conflict : — 

** John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave, 
But his soul is marching on. ' ' 

And now, at the age of fifty-one, this child of 
the wilderness, this farm laborer, rail-splitter, 
flat-boatman — this surveyor, lawyer, orator, 
statesman and patriot found himself elected by 
the great party which was pledged to prevent at 
all hazards the further extension of slavery, as 
the chief magistrate of the Republic, bound to 
carry out that purpose, to be the leader and ruler 
of the nation in its most trying hour. 

Those who believe* that there is a living Provi- 
dence that over-rules and conducts the affairs of 
nations, find in. the elevation of this plain man to 
this extraordinary fortune and to this great duty 
which he so fitly discharged, a signal vindication 
of their faith. Perhaps to this Philosophical 
Institution the judgment of our philosopher 
Emerson will commend itself as a just estimate 
of Lincoln's historical place: — 

" His occupying the Chair of State was a triumph of 
the good sense of mankind and of the public conscience. 
He grew according to the need ; his mind mastered the 

21 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

problem of the day : and as the problem grew, so did his 
comprehension of it. In the war there was no place for 
holiday magistrate, nor fair weather sailor. The new 
pilot was hurried to the helm in a tornado. In four 
years — four years of battle days — his endurance, his 
fertility of resource, his magnanimity, were sorely tried, 
and never found wanting. There, by his courage, his 
justice, his even temper, his fertile counsel, his human- 
ity, he stood a heroic figure in the centre of a heroic 
epoch. He is the true history of the American people in 
his time, the true representative of this continent — 
father of his country, the pulse of twenty millions throb- 
bing in his heart, the thought of their mind articulated 
in his tongue." 

He was born great, as distinguished from those 
who achieve greatness or have it thrust upon 
them, and his inherent capacity, mental, moral, 
and physical, having been recognized by the edu- 
cated intelligence of a free people, they happily 
chose him for their ruler in a day of deadly peril. 

It is now forty years since I first saw and 
heard Abraham Lincoln, but the impression which 
he left on my mind is ineffaceable. After his 
great successes in the West he came to New York 
to make a political address. He appeared in every 
sense of the word like one of the plain people 
among whom he loved to be counted. At first 
sight there was nothing impressive or imposing 
about him — except that his great stature singled 
him out from the crowd; his clothes hung awk- 
wardly on his giant frame, his face was of a 
dark pallor, without the slightest tinge of color; 

22 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

his seamed and rugged features bore the furrows 
of hardship and struggle; his deep-set eyes 
looked sad and anxious; his countenance in re- 
pose gave little evidence of that brain power 
which had raised him from the lowest to the 
highest station among his countrymen; as he 
talked to me before the meeting, he seemed ill 
at ease, with that sort of apprehension which 
a young man might feel before presenting him- 
self to a new and strange audience, whose critical 
disposition he dreaded. It was a great audience, 
including all the noted men — all the learned and 
cultured — of his party in New York : editors, 
clergymen, statesmen, lawyers, merchants, critics. 
They were all very curious to hear him. His 
fame as a powerful speaker had preceded him, 
and exaggerated rumor of his wit — the worst 
forerunner of an orator — had reached the East. 
When Mr. Bryant presented him, on the high 
platform of the Cooper Institute, a vast sea of 
eager upturned faces greeted him, full of intense 
curiosity to see what this rude child of the people 
was like. He was equal to the occasion. "When 
he spoke he was transformed; his eye kindled, 
his voice rang, his face shone and seemed to light 
up the whole assembly. For an hour and a half 
he held his audience in the hollow of his hand. 
His style of speech and manner of delivery were 
severely simple. What Lowell called ** The 
grand simplicities of the Bible," with which he 
was so familiar, were reflected in his discourse. 
With no attempt at ornament or rhetoric, without 

23 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

parade or pretence, he spoke straiglit to the point. 
If any came expecting the turgid eloquence or the 
ribaldry of the frontier, they must have been 
startled at the earnest and sincere purity of his 
utterances. It was marvellous to see how this 
untutored man, by mere self discipline and 
the chastening of his own spirit, had outgrown 
all meretricious arts, and found his own way 
to the grandeur and strength of absolute sim- 
plicity. 

He spoke upon the theme which he had mas- 
tered so thoroughly. He demonstrated by copi- 
ous historical proofs and masterly logic, that the 
Fathers who created the Constitution in order to 
form a more perfect union, to establish justice, 
and to secure the blessings of liberty to themselves 
and their posterity, intended to empower the 
Federal Government to exclude slavery from the 
territories. In the kindliest spirit, he protested 
against the avowed threat of the Southern States 
to destroy the Union if, in order to secure free- 
dom in those vast regions, out of which future 
States were to be carved, a Republican President 
were elected. He closed with an appeal to his 
audience, spoken with all the fire of his aroused 
and kindling conscience, with a full outpouring 
of his love of justice and liberty, to maintain their 
political purpose on that lofty and unassailable 
issue of right and wrong which alone could jus- 
tify it, and not to be intimidated from their high 
resolve and sacred duty by any threats of destruc- 
tion to the Government or of ruin to themselves. 

24 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

He concluded with this telling sentence, which 
drove the whole argument home to all our hearts : 
" Let us have faith that right makes might, and 
in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty 
as we understand it. ' ' That night the great hall, 
and the next day the whole city, rang with de- 
lighted applause and congratulations, and he who 
had come as a stranger departed with the laurels 
of a great triumph. 

Alas ! in five years from that exulting night, I 
saw him again, for the last time, in the same city, 
borne in his coffin through its draped streets. 
With tears and lamentations a heart-broken peo- 
ple accompanied him from Washington, the scene 
of his martyrdom, to his last resting place in the 
young city of the West, where he had worked his 
way to fame. 

Never was a new ruler in a more desperate 
plight than Lincoln when he entered office on the 
4th of March, 1861, four months after his election, 
and took his oath to support the Constitution and 
the Union. The intervening time had been busily 
employed by the Southern States in carrying out 
their threat of disunion in the event of his elec- 
tion. As soon as that fact was ascertained, seven 
of them had seceded and had seized upon the forts, 
arsenals, navy yards and other public property of 
the United States within their boundaries, and 
were making every preparation for war. In the 
meantime the retiring President, who had been 
elected by the slave power, and who thought the 
seceding States could not lawfully be coerced, had 

25 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

done absolutely nothing. Lincoln found himself, 
by the Constitution, Commander-in-Chief of the 
Army and Navy of the United States, but with 
only a remnant of either at hand. Each was to 
be created on a great scale out of the unknown 
resources of a nation untried in war. 

In his mild and conciliatory inaugural address, 
while appealing to the seceding States to return 
to their allegiance, he avowed his purpose to keep 
the solemn oath he had taken that day, to see that 
the laws of the Union were faithfully executed, 
and to use the troops to recover the forts, navy 
yards, and other property belonging to the Gov- 
ernment. It is probable, however, that neither 
side actually realized that war was inevitable, and 
that the other was determined to fight, until the 
assault on Fort Sumter presented the South as 
the first aggressor and roused the North to use 
every possible resource to maintain the Govern- 
ment and the imperilled Union, and to vindicate 
the supremacy of the flag over every inch of the 
territory of the United States. The fact that Lin- 
coln's first Proclamation called for only 75,000 
troops, to serve for three months, shows how in- 
adequate was even his idea of what the future had 
in store. But from that moment Lincoln and his 
loyal supporters never faltered in their purpose. 
They knew they could win, that it was their duty 
to win, and that for America the whole hope of 
the future depended upon their winning, for now 
by the acts of the seceding States the issue of the 
Election — to secure or prevent the extension of 

26 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

slavery — stood transformed into a struggle to 
preserve or to destroy the Union. 

We cannot follow this contest. You know its 
gigantic proportions; that it lasted four years 
instead of three months; that in its progress 
instead of 75,000 men, more than 2,000,000 were 
enrolled on the side of the Government alone ; that 
the aggregate cost and loss to the nation approx- 
imated to 2,000,000,000 pounds sterling, and that 
not less than 300,000 brave and precious lives were 
sacrificed on each side. History has recorded how 
Lincoln bore himself during these four frightful 
years; that he was the real President, the re- 
sponsible and actual head of the Government 
through it all ; that he listened to all advice, heard 
all parties, and then, always realizing his respon- 
sibility to God and the nation, decided every great 
executive question for himself. His absolute hon- 
esty had become proverbial long before he was 
President. ** Honest Abe Lincoln " was the name 
by which he had been known for years. His every 
act attested it. 

In all the grandeur of the vast power that he 
wielded, he never ceased to be one of the plain 
people, as he always called them, never lost or 
impaired his perfect sympathy with them, was 
always in perfect touch with them and open to 
their appeals ; and here lay the very secret of his 
personality and of his power, for the people in 
turn gave him their absolute confidence. His cour- 
age, his fortitude, his patience, his hopefulness, 
were sorely tried but never exhausted. 

27 



ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

He was true as steel to his Generals, but had 
frequent occasion to change them, as he found 
them inadequate. This serious and painful duty 
rested wholly on him, and was perhaps his most 
important function as Commander-in-Chief; but 
when, at last, he recognized in General Grant the 
master of the situation, the man who could and 
would bring the war to a triumphant end, he gave 
it all over to him, and upheld him with all his 
might. Amid all the pressure and distress that 
the burdens of office brought upon him, his unfail- 
ing sense of humor saved him — probably it made 
it possible for him to live under the burden. He 
had always been the great story-teller of the West, 
and he used and cultivated this faculty to relieve 
the weight of the load he bore. 

It enabled him to keep the wonderful record of 
never having lost his temper, no matter what 
agony he had to bear. A whole night might be 
spent in recounting the stories of his wit, humor, 
and harmless sarcasm. But I will recall only two 
of his sayings, both about General Grant, who' 
always found plenty of enemies and critics to urge 
the President to oust him from his command. 
One, I am sure, will interest all Scotchmen. They 
repeated with malicious intent the gossip that 
Grant drank. '' What does he drink? " asked 
Lincoln. '* Whiskey " was, of course, the an- 
swer; doubtless you can guess the brand. 
" Well," said the President, " just find out what 
particular kind he uses and I'll send a barrel to 
each of my other Generals," The other must be 

28 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

as pleasing to the British as to the American ear. 
"When pressed again on other grounds to get rid 
of Grant, he declared, ^' I can't spare that man, 
he fights ! ' ' 

He was tender-hearted to a fault, and never 
could resist the appeals of wives and mothers of 
soldiers who had got into trouble and were under 
sentence of death for their offences. His Secre- 
tary of War and other officials complained that 
they never could get deserters shot. As surely 
as the women of the culprit's family could get at 
him, he always gave way. Certainly you will all 
appreciate his exquisite sympathy with the suffer- 
ing relatives of those who had fallen in battle. 
His heart bled with theirs. Never was there a 
more gentle and tender utterance than his letter, 
to a mother who had given all her sons to her 
country, written at a time when the angel of death 
had visited almost every household in the land, 
and was already hovering over him. 

'' I have been shown," he says, " in the files 
of the War Department a statement that you are 
the mother of five sons who have died gloriously 
on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruit- 
less must be any words of mine which should at- 
tempt to beguile you from your grief for a loss 
so overwhelming — but I cannot refrain from ten- 
dering to you the consolation which may be found 
in the thanks of the Eepublic they died to save. 
I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the 
anguish of your bereavement and leave you only 
the cherished memory of the loved and the lost, 

29 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

and the solemn pride that must be yours to have 
laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of free- 
dom. ' ' 

Hardly could your illustrious Sovereign, 
from the depths of her queenly and womanly 
heart, have spoken words more touching and 
tender to soothe the stricken mothers of her own 
soldiers. 

The Emancipation Proclamation, with which 
Mr. Lincoln delighted the country and the world 
on the first of January, 1863, will doubtless secure 
for him a foremost place in history among the 
philanthropists and benefactors of the race, as it 
rescued, from hopeless and degrading slavery, 
so many millions of his fellow beings described 
in the law and existing in fact as '' chattels-per- 
sonal, in the hands of their owners and posses- 
sors, to all intents, constructions and purposes 
whatsoever." Rarely does the happy fortune 
come to one man to render such a service to his 
kind — to proclaim liberty throughout the land 
unto all the inhabitants thereof. 

Ideas rule the world, and never was there a 
more signal instance of this triumph of an idea 
than here. William Lloyd Garrison, who thirty 
years before had begun his crusade for the aboli- 
tion of slavery, and had lived to see this glorious 
and unexpected consummation of the hopeless 
cause to which he had devoted his life, well de- 
scribed the Proclamation as a " great historic 
event, sublime in its magnitude, momentous and 
beneficent in its far-reaching consequences, and 

30 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

eminently just and right alike to the oppressor 
and the oppressed. ' ' 

Lincoln had been always heart and soul opposed 
to slavery. Tradition says that on the trip on the 
flat boat to New Orleans, he formed his first and 
last opinion of slavery at the sight of negroes 
chained and scourged, and that then and there the 
iron entered into his soul. No boy could grow to 
manhood in those days as a poor white in Ken- 
tucky and Indiana, in close contact with slavery 
or in its neighborhood, without a growing con- 
sciousness of its blighting effects on free labor, 
as well of its frightful injustice and cruelty. In 
the Legislature of Illinois, where the public senti- 
ment was all for upholding the institution and 
violently against every movement for its abolition 
or restriction, upon the passage of resolutions to 
that effect, he had the courage with one compan- 
ion to put on record his protest, '' believing that 
the institution of slavery is founded both in injus- 
tice and bad policy. ' ' No great demonstration of 
courage, you will say ; but that was at a time when 
Garrison, for his abolition utterances, had been 
dragged by an angry mob through the streets of 
Boston with a rope around his body, and in the 
very year that Love joy in the same State of Illi- 
nois was slain by rioters while defending his press, 
from which he had printed anti-slavery appeals. 

In Congress, he brought in a Bill for gradual 
abolition in the District of Columbia, with com- 
pensation to the owners — for until they raised 
treasonable hands against the life of the nation, 

31 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

he always maintained that the property of the 
slave-holders, into which they had come by two 
centuries of descent, without fault on their part, 
ought not to be taken away from them without just 
compensation. He used to say that, one way or 
another, he had voted forty-two times for the 
Wilmot proviso, which Mr. Wilmot of Pennsyl- 
vania moved as an addition to every Bill which 
affected United States territory — ' ' That neither 
slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist 
in any part of the said territory, ' ' — and it is evi- 
dent that his condemnation of the system, on 
moral grounds as a crime against the human race, 
and on political grounds as a cancer that was sap- 
ping the vitals of the nation, and must master its 
whole being or be itself extirpated, grew steadily 
upon him until it culminated in his great speeches 
in the Illinois debate. 

By the mere election of Lincoln to the Presi- 
dency, the further extension of slavery into the 
territories was rendered for ever impossible — 
Vox populi, vox Dei. Revolutions never go back- 
ward, and when founded on a great moral senti- 
ment stirring the heart of an indignant people, 
their edicts are irresistible and final. Had the 
slave power acquiesced in that election, had the 
Southern States remained under the Constitution 
and within the Union, and relied upon their con- 
stitutional and legal rights, their favorite insti- 
tution, immoral as it was, blighting and fatal as 
it was, might have endured for another century. 
The great party that had elected him, unalterably 

32 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

determined against its extension, was nevertlie- 
less pledged not to interfere with its continuance 
in the States where it already existed. Of course, 
when new regions were for ever closed against it, 
from its very nature it must have begun to shrink 
and to dwindle; and probably gradual and 
compensated emancipation, which appealed very 
strongly to the new President's sense of justice 
and expediency, would, in the progress of time, 
by a reversion to the ideas of the Founders of the 
Republic, have found a safe outlet for both mas- 
ters and slaves. But whom the gods wish to 
destroy they first make mad, and when seven 
States, afterwards increased to eleven, openly 
seceded from the Union, when they declared and 
began the war upon the nation, and challenged its 
mighty power to the desperate and protracted 
struggle for its life, and for the maintenance of 
its authority as a nation over its territory, they 
gave to Lincoln and to freedom the sublime oppor- 
tunity of history. 

In his first inaugural address, when as yet not 
a drop of precious blood had been shed, while he 
held out to them the olive branch in one hand, in 
the other he presented the guarantees of the Con- 
stitution, and after reciting the emphatic resolu- 
tion of the Convention that nominated him, that 
the maintenance inviolate of the ** rights of the 
States, and especially the right of each State to 
order and control its own domestic institutions 
according to its own judgment exclusively, is es- 
sential to that balance of power on which the per- 

33 



ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

fection and endurance of our political fabric de- 
pend," lie reiterated this sentiment and declared 
with no mental reservation, '' that all the protec- 
tion which, consistently with the Constitution and 
the laws can be ^ven, will be cheerfully given to 
all the States when lawfully demanded for what- 
ever cause — as cheerfully to one section as to 
another. ' ' 

When, however, these magnanimous overtures 
for peace and re-union were rejected; when the 
seceding States defied the Constitution and every 
clause and principle of it ; when they persisted in 
staying out of the Union from which they had se- 
ceded, and proceeded to carve out of its territory 
a new and hostile empire based on slavery; when 
they flew at the throat of the nation and plunged 
it into the bloodiest war of the nineteenth cen- 
tury — the tables were turned, and the belief grad- 
ually came to the mind of the President that if 
the Eebellion was not soon subdued by force of 
arms, if the war must be fought out to the bitter 
end, then to reach that end the salvation of the 
nation itself might require the destruction of sla- 
very wherever it existed ; that if the war was to 
continue on one side for Disunion, for no other 
purpose than to preserve slavery, it must continue 
on the other side for the Union, to destroy slavery. 

As he said, * ' Events control me ; I cannot con- 
trol events," and as the dreadful war progressed, 
and became more deadly and dangerous, the un- 
alterable conviction was forced upon him that, in 
order that the frightful sacrifice of life and treas- 

34 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ure on both sides might not be all in vain, it had 
become his duty as Commander-in-Chief of the 
Army, as a necessary war measure, to strike a 
blow at the Rebellion which, all others failing, 
would inevitably lead to its annihilation, by anni- 
hilating the very thing for which it was contend- 
ing. His own words are the best : — 

' ' I understood that my oath to preserve the Constitu- 
tion to the best of my ability imposed upon me the duty 
of preserving by every indispensable means that Gov- 
ernment — that Nation, of which that Constitution was 
the organic law. Was it possible to lose the Nation and 
yet preserve the Constitution? By general law, life 
and limb must be protected; yet often a limb must be 
amputated to save a life ; but a life is never wisely given 
to save a limb. I felt that measures otherwise uncon- 
stitutional might become lawful by becoming indispens- 
able to the preservation of the Constitution through the 
preservation of the Nation. Right or wrong, I assumed 
this ground and now avow it. I could not feel that, to 
the best of my ability, I had ever tried to preserve the 
Constitution if to save slavery or any minor matter, I 
should permit the wreck of Government, Country and 
Constitution all together." 

And so, at last, when in his judgment the indis- 
pensable necessity had come, he struck the fatal 
blow, and signed the Proclamation which has made 
his name immortal. By it, the President, as Com- 
mander-in-Chief in time of actual armed rebellion, 
and as a fit and necessary war measure for sup- 
pressing the rebellion, proclaimed all persons held 

35 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

as slaves in the States and parts of States then 
in rebellion to be thenceforward free, and declared 
that the executive, with the Army and Navy, would 
recognize and maintain their freedom. 

In the other great steps of the Government, 
which led to the triumphant prosecution of the 
war, he necessarily shared the responsibility and 
the credit with the great statesmen who stayed up 
his hands in his Cabinet — with Seward, Chase 
and Stanton and the rest, and with his generals 
and admirals, his soldiers and sailors — but this 
great act was absolutely his own. The conception 
and execution were exclusively his. He laid it 
before his Cabinet as a measure on which his mind 
was made up and could not be changed, asking 
them only for suggestions as to details. He chose 
the time and the circumstances -under which the 
Emancipation should be proclaimed and when it 
should take effect. 

It came not an hour too soon ; but public opin- 
ion in the North would not have sustained it ear- 
lier. In the first eighteen months of the war its 
ravages had extended from the Atlantic to beyond 
the Mississippi. Many victories in the West had 
been balanced and paralyzed by inaction and dis- 
asters in Virginia, only partially redeemed by the 
bloody and indecisive battle of Antietam ; a reac- 
tion had set in from the general enthusiasm which 
had swept the Northern States after the assault 
upon Sumter. It could not truly be said that they 
had lost heart, but faction was raising its head. 
Heard through the land like the blast of a bugle, 

36 



ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

the Proclamation rallied the patriotism of the 
comitry to fresh sacrifices and renewed ardor. It 
was a step that could not be revoked. It relieved 
the conscience of the nation from an incubus that 
had oppressed it from its birth. The United 
States were rescued from the false predicament 
in which they had been from the beginning, and 
the great popular heart leaped with new enthusi- 
asm for ' ' Liberty and LTnion, henceforth and for- 
ever, one and inseparable." It brought not only 
moral but material support to the cause of the 
Government, for within two years 120,000 colored 
troops were enlisted in the military service and 
following the national flag, supported by all the 
loyalty of the North, and led by its choicest spirits. 
One mother said, when her son was offered the 
command of the first colored regiment, *' If he 
accepts it I shall be as proud as if I had heard 
that he was shot. ' ' He was shot heading a gallant 
charge of his regiment. The Confederates replied 
to a request of his friends for his body that they 
' ' had buried him under a layer of his niggers ' ' ; 
but that mother has lived to enjoy thirty-six years 
of his glory, and Boston has erected its noblest 
monument to his memory. 

The effect of the Proclamation upon the actual 
progress of the war was not immediate, but wher- 
ever the Federal armies advanced they carried 
freedom with them, and when the summer came 
round the new spirit and force which had animated 
the heart of the Government and people were man- 
ifest. In the first week of July, the decisive battle 

37 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

of Gettysburg turned the tide of war, and the fall 
of Vicksburg made the great river free from its 
source to the Gulf. 

On foreign nations the influence of the Procla- 
mation and of these new victories was of great 
importance. In those days, when there was no 
cable, it was not easy for foreign observers to 
appreciate what was really going on; they could 
not see clearly the true state of affairs, as in the 
last year of the nineteenth century we have been 
able, by our new electric vision, to watch every 
event at the antipodes and observe its effect. The 
rebel emissaries, sent over to solicit intervention, 
spared no pains to impress upon the minds of 
public and private men and upon the press their 
own views of the character of the contest. The 
prospects of the Confederacy were always better 
abroad than at home. The Stock Markets of the 
world gambled upon its chances, and its bonds at 
one time were in high favor. 

Such ideas as these were seriously held: that 
the North was fighting for empire, and the South 
for independence; that the Southern States, in- 
stead of being the grossest oligarchies, essentially 
despotisms, founded on the right of one man to 
appropriate the fruit of other men's toil and to 
exclude them from equal rights, were real repub- 
lics, feebler to be sure than their Northern rivals, 
but representing the same idea of freedom, and 
that the mighty strength of the nation was being 
put forth to crush them ; that Jefferson Davis and 
the Southern leaders had created a nation; that 

38 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the republican experiment had failed, and the 
Union had ceased to exist. But the crowning ar- 
gument to foreign minds was that it was an utter 
impossibility for the Government to win in the 
contest; that the success of the Southern States, 
so far as separation was concerned, was as cer- 
tain as any event yet future and contingent could 
be; that the subjugation of the South by the 
North, even if it could be accomplished, would 
prove a calamity to the United States and the 
world, and especially calamitous to the negro race ; 
and that such a victory would necessarily leave 
the people of the South for many generations 
cherishing deadly hostility against the Govern- 
ment and the North, and plotting always to re- 
cover their independence. 

When Lincoln issued his Proclamation, he knew 
that all these ideas were founded in error; that 
the national resources were inexhaustible; that 
the Government could and would win, and that if 
slavery were once finally disposed of, the only 
cause of difference being out of the way, the North 
and South would come together again and, by- 
and-by, be as good friends as ever. In many quar- 
ters abroad the Proclamation was welcomed with 
enthusiasm by the friends of America ; but I think 
the demonstrations in its favor that brought more 
gladness to Lincoln's heart than any other, were 
the meetings held in the manufacturing centres by 
the very operatives upon whom the war bore the 
hardest, expressing the most enthusiastic sympa- 
thy with the Proclamation, while they bore with 

39 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

heroic fortitude the grievous privations which the 
war entailed upon them. Mr. Lincoln's expecta- 
tion when he announced to the world that all 
slaves in all States then in rebellion were set free, 
must have been that the avowed position of his 
Government, that the continuance of the war now 
meant the annihilation of slavery, would make 
intervention impossible for any foreign nation 
whose people were lovers of liberty, — and so the 
result proved. 

The growth and development of Lincoln's men- 
tal power and moral force, of his intense and mag- 
netic personality, after the vast responsibilities 
of Grovernment were thrown upon him at the age 
of fifty-two, furnish a rare and striking illustra- 
tion of the marvellous capacity and adaptability 
of the human intellect — of the sound mind in the 
sound body. He came to the discharge of the 
great duties of the Presidency with absolutely no 
experience in the administration of Government, 
or of the vastly varied and complicated questions 
of foreign and domestic policy which immediately 
arose, and continued to press upon him during the 
rest of his life ; but he mastered each as it came, 
apparently with the facility of a trained and expe- 
rienced ruler. As Clarendon said of Cromwell — 
" His parts seemed to be raised by the demands 
of great station. ' ' His life through it all was one 
of intense labor, anxiety and distress, without one 
hour of peaceful repose from first to last. But he 
rose to every occasion. He led public opinion, 
but did not march so far in advance of it as to 

40 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

fail of its effective support in every great emer- 
gency. He knew the heart and thought of the 
people, as no man not in constant and absolute 
sympathy with them could have known it, and so, 
holding their confidence, he triumphed through 
and with them. Not only was there this steady 
growth of intellect, but the infinite delicacy of his 
nature and its capacity for refinement developed 
also, as exhibited in the purity and perfection of 
his language and style of speech. The rough back- 
woodsman, who had never seen the inside of a Uni- 
versity, became in the end, by self -training and 
the exercise of hi*s own powers of mind, heart and 
soul, a master of style — and some of his utter- 
ances will rank with the best, the most perfectly 
adapted to the occasion which produced them. 

Have you time to listen to his two minutes' 
speech at Gettysburg, at the dedication of the Sol- 
diers ' Cemetery? His whole soul was in it : 

' ' Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought 
forth on this continent a new nation conceived in Uberty 
and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created 
equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing 
whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so 
dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great 
battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a 
portion of that field as a final resting place for those 
who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It 
is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. 
But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate — we cannot 
consecrate — we cannot hallow this ground. The brave 
men, living and dead, who struggled here have conse- 

41 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

crated it far above our poor power to add or detract. 
The world will little note, nor long remember, what we 
say here — but it can never forget what they did here. 
It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the 
unfinished work which they who fought here have thus 
far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here 
dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that 
from these honored dead we take increased devotion to 
that cause for which they gave the last full measure of 
devotion — that we here highly resolve, that these dead 
shall not have died in vain — that this nation under God 
shall have a new birth of freedom — and that govern- 
ment of the people, by the people and for the people, 
shall not perish from the earth." 

He lived to see his work indorsed by an over- 
whelming majority of his countrymen. In his sec- 
ond Inangnral Address, pronounced just forty 
days before his death, there is a single passage 
which well displays his indomitable will and at 
the same time his deep religious feeling, his sub- 
lime charity to the enemies of his country and his 
broad and Catholic liumanity : 

" If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of 
those offences which in the Providence of God must needs 
come, but which having continued through the appointed 
time. He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both 
North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to 
those by whom the offence came, shall we discern therein 
any departure from those di^^ne attributes which the 
believers in a living God always ascribe to Him ? Fondly 
do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty 
scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God 

42 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

wills, that it continue until all the wealth piled by the 
bondsmen's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited 
toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn 
with the lash, shall be paid with another drawn by the 
sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it 
must be said, ' The judgments of the Lord are true and 
righteous altogether. ' ' ' 

* ' With malice toward none, with charity for all ; with 
firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right — 
let us strive on to finish the work we are in ; to bind up 
the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have 
borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan — to 
do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting 
peace among ourselves, and with all nations." 

His prayer was answered. The forty days of 
life that remained to him were crowded with great 
historic events. He lived to see his Proclamation 
of Emancipation embodied in an amendment of 
the Constitution, adopted by Congress and sub- 
mitted to the States for ratification. The mighty 
scourge of war did speedily pass away, for it was 
given him to witness the surrender of the Rebel 
army and the fall of their capital, and the starry 
flag that he loved, waving in triumph over the 
national soil. "When he died by the madman's 
hand in the supreme hour of victory, the van- 
quished lost their best friend, and the human race 
one of its noblest examples; and all the friends 
of freedom and justice, in whose cause he lived 
and died, joined hands as mourners at his grave. 



43 



BENJAMIN FRANEXIN 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

Inaugural address, October SSrd, 1903, before the Birmingham and 
Midland Institute. 

EDUCATION is now in all civilized countries 
the question of the hour, and the unsolved 
problems of secondary, technical, and university 
education are engaging universal attention. As 
a diversion from this general discussion, it may 
not be uninteresting to study the lives of those 
great and rare men who, without any of these 
extraneous aids, achieve undying fame and confer 
priceless blessings on mankind. For them schools, 
colleges, and universities are of little account, 
and are not required for their development. The 
world is their school, and necessity is often their 
only teacher, but their lives are the world's treas- 
ures. It is in this view that I ask your attention 
for a brief hour to the life, character, and achieve- 
ments of Benjamin Franklin of Philadelphia. 

His whole career has been summed up by the 
great French statesman who was one of his per- 
sonal friends and correspondents in six words, 
Latin words of course : — 

'* Eripuit coelo fulmen, sceptrumque tyrannis," 
which, unfortunately for our language, cannot be 
translated into English in less than twelve : — 

' * He snatched the lightning from the skies and 
the sceptre from tyrants.'* 

47 



BENJAMIN FEANKLIN 

Surely the briefest and most brilliant biog- 
raphy ever written. He enlarged the boundaries 
of human knowledge by discovering laws and 
facts of Nature unknown before, and applying 
them to the use and service of man, and that 
entitles him to lasting fame. But his other serv- 
ice to mankind differed from this only in kind, 
and was quite equal in degree. For he stands 
second only to Washington in the list of heroic 
patriots who on both sides of the Atlantic stood 
for those fundamental principles of English lib- 
erty, which culminated in the independence of the 
United States, and have ever since been shared 
by the English-speaking race the world over. 

You must all be familiar with the principal 
facts in Franklin's life. He was born a British 
subject at Boston in Massachusetts, then a village 
of about 12,000 inhabitants, in 1706, the year in 
which Marlborough won the battle of Kamillies 
and made every New Englander very proud of 
being a subject of Queen Anne. He was the fif- 
teenth child in a family of seventeen, a rate of 
multiplication enough to frighten the life out of 
Malthus, and more than sufficient to satisfy the 
extreme demands of President Roosevelt. His 
father, born at Ecton in Northamptonshire, came 
of that ancient and sturdy Saxon yeomanry which 
has done so much for the making of England. 
Having followed the trade of a dyer for some 
years at Banbury, he emigrated in 1685 to Boston, 
where, finding little encouragement for his old 
trade, he engaged in the business of tallow chan- 

48 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

dler and soap boiler. The boy could never re- 
member when he learned to read and write, and 
at eight years old he was sent to the Boston Gram- 
mar School, one of those free common schools 
then and ever since the pride of the Colony and 
the State. But in two years, at the age of ten, 
his school days were over for ever. His father 
finding that with the heavy burden of his great 
family he could afford him no more education, 
took the child home to assist in his business, and 
the next two years the future philosopher and 
diplomatist spent in cutting candle wicks, filling 
moulds, tending the shop and running errands. 

That he highly valued the little schooling that 
he had, meagre as it must have been, appears 
from his last will made sixty-two years after- 
wards, in which he says that he owed his first in- 
struction in literature to the free grammar schools 
of his native town of Boston, and leaves to the 
town one hundred pounds sterling, the annual 
interest to be laid out in silver medals to be dis- 
tributed as honorary rewards in those schools, 
and to this day the Franklin Medals are striven 
for and valued as the most honorable prize that 
a Boston boy can win. 

But how did this particular boy, without an 
hour's tuition of any kind after he was ten years 
old, come to be the most famous American of his 
time, and win his place in the front rank of the 
world's scientists, diplomatists, statesmen, men 
of letters, and men of affairs'? It was by sheer 
force of brains, character, severe self-discipline, 

49 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

untiring industry and mother-wit. His predom- 
inant trait was practical common sense amounting 
to genius. God gave him the sound mind in the 
sound body, and he did the rest himself. He soon 
revolted at the vulgar duties of his father's busi- 
ness, and at the age of thirteen was apprenticed 
till his majority to his elder brother, who was a 
printer and bookseller, and the publisher of the 
New England Courant, one of the earliest news- 
papers in the Colonies, 

From this time forward the printing office was 
his school and his university, and probably did 
more for him than Oxford or Harvard could then 
have done. With a raging thirst for knowledge 
he developed a keen and unfailing observation of 
things and of men, and, above all, a constant study 
of himself, of which he was a very rare example. 
He denied himself every pleasure but reading, 
and robbed his body of food and sleep that he 
might find time and food for his mind, reading 
every good book on which he could lay his hands. 
He soon mastered the art of printing as it was 
then known, and very early developed a faculty 
for the use of his pen which gave his brain a 
vent. He began with two ballads — * ' The Light- 
house Tragedy " and '' Blackboard the Pirate " 
— and hawked them about the town. The first, 
he says, sold wonderfully, but his father dis- 
couraged him by ridiculing his performances, and 
telling him verse makers were generally beggars, 
and ^' So," he says, '' I escaped being a poet; 
most probably a very bad one." 

50 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

So precocious was his literary faculty that very 
soon he began contributing leading articles to the 
Courant, and when he was sixteen, his brother 
having been placed under an interdict for criti- 
cizing the authorities, he became himself the pub- 
lisher and editor, and of course the circulation 
increased. But he was still only an apprentice, 
and his manly and independent spirit found it 
as hard to brook the indignities and blows to 
which his master, though he was his brother, sub- 
jected him, as he had found it before to ladle the 
tallow and fill the moulds in his father's shop, 
and so at seventeen he took to his heels, shook the 
dust of Boston from his feet, and ran away to 
Philadelphia, 

He landed in the Quaker City with but one dol- 
lar in his pocket, and as he had often dined on 
bread, he bought three rolls, and marched up 
Market Street, his pockets stuffed with shirts and 
stockings, eating one roll and with another under 
each arm. His future wife saw him in this guise 
as he passed her father's door, and thought he 
presented a ridiculous appearance, as he certainly 
did. But he had thoroughly learned his trade, 
and soon found employment as a journeyman 
printer. He would have gone on very well had 
he not been sent to London by the Governor of 
the Province on a promise of business which to- 
tally failed. He found himself in that great city 
without a friend, and with little money in his 
pocket. But he soon found employment at good 
wages in the best printing offices at thirty shil- 

51 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

lings a week, lodged in Little Britain at three and 
sixpence, and so managed to keep his head above 
water for eighteen months, but lived an aimless 
and somewhat irregular life. 

However, he worked hard at his trade, and 
made some ingenious acquaintances, among them 
Sir Hans Sloane, the founder of the British Mu- 
seum, and Sir William Wyndham, once Chancel- 
lor of the Exchequer — the former by selling him 
a curiosity which he had brought from America ; 
the latter by his skill in swimming, in which he 
had from boyhood been a great expert. His own 
account of this last acquaintance is not a little 
diverting. He had visited Chelsea with a party 
of friends, and on the return by water was in- 
duced to give them an exhibition of his skill in 
this manly art. He swam all the way from Chel- 
sea to Blackf riars, performing many feats of agil- 
ity both upon and under water that surprised and 
pleased the spectators. Sir William, hearing of 
this, sent for him, and offered if he would teach 
his two sons to swim to set him up in that busi- 
ness, and so he might have spent his life in Lon- 
don as the head of a swimming school, and never 
have lived to snatch the lightning from the clouds 
or the sceptre from tyrants, or to change the map 
of the world. 

Before leaving London he accepted from a rep- 
utable merchant who was returning to Philadel- 
phia an offer of a clerkship, and in a few months, 
he learned much of the business, but was thrown 
out of it by the death of his employer, and by a 

52 



BENJAMIN FEANKLIN 

terrible illness, from which he barely recovered. 
Referring to this illness he wrote his own epitaph, 
which, fortunately for the world, there was no 
occasion to use : — 

The Body 

of 

Benjamin Franklin 

(Like the cover of an old book, 

Its contents torn out 

and stripped of its lettering and binding), 

Lies here, food for worms. 

Yet the work itself shall not be lost, 

For it will, as he believed, appear once more 

In a new 

And more beautiful Edition, 

Corrected and Amended 

By 

The Author. 

Soon after this illness he turned over a new 
leaf, with firm resolve to train himself for a suc- 
cessful and honorable life by the practice of 
every virtue. He returned to his old business of 
printing, which for twenty years he followed with 
the utmost diligence, and became very prosperous. 

About this time he conceived the bold and ardu- 
ous project of arriving at moral perfection, and 
rigidly schooled himself in the virtues of temper- 
ance, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sin- 
cerity, moderation, and cleanliness. By constant 
reading, study, and observation he made the very 
best of the great mental capacity with which he 
had been endowed by Nature. He set to work 

53 



& 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

deliberately and with conscientious fidelity to im- 
prove to the best advantage all his faculties, not 
for his own good and happiness only, but for the 
benefit of the community to which he belonged. 
From an odd volume of the Spectator which fell 
into his hands he modelled his style, training him- 
self more rigorously than any school could have 
trained him, and thus acquired very early in life 
that power of clear and lucid expression which 
made all his subsequent writings so effective. 

A brilliant modern writer, Hugh Black, has said 
that " culture is the conscious training in which 
a man makes use of every educational means 
within his reach, feeding his inner life by every 
vital force in history and experience, and so ad- 
justing himself to his environment that he shall 
absorb the best products of the life of his time, 
thus making his personality rich and deep." 

It was this self-culture that Franklin sought to 
attain, and he never lost sight of his object. Self- 
control once achieved, enabled him in large meas- 
ure to control others. No wonder, then, that in 
Philadelphia, at that time already a large city, he 
not only rapidly achieved success in his business, 
but became before long a marked figure in Penn- 
sylvania and throughout the thirteen Colonies. 
He never wasted time, and so time never wasted 
him, and at the age of forty- two he was able to 
withdraw from the active management of his 
business, and to devote himself to public affairs 
and to scientific studies in which his soul de- 
lighted. 

54 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

In the meantime, and always in the way of busi- 
ness, he had engaged in two literary ventures, 
which at the same time exercised his active brains, 
and extended his reputation very widely. He 
purchased the Pennsylvania Gazette when it was 
on the verge of ruin and collapse, and it became 
under his editorship the best newspaper in Amer- 
ica, and by means of it he exercised vast power 
and influence throughout the Colonies. And Poor 
Richard's Almanac, which he started when he was 
twenty-six years old, and continued to publish for 
twenty-five years, proved to be a splendid vehicle 
for the exercise of his wonderful common-sense, 
lively wit, and keen interest in all sorts of affairs. 
He was very human, and nothing human escaped 
his searching interest. It was an almanac de- 
signed for the general diffusion of knowledge 
among the people. "Wliere there were few or no 
books, it found its way with the Bible into every 
household in the land. Every number was full of 
worldly wisdom, proverbial philosophy, inculcat- 
ing the practice of all the homely virtues, such as 
honesty, frugality, industry, temperance, and 
thrift as the sure guides to success and happiness, 
and with all this a generous sprinkling of the live- 
liest wit and fun. Its circulation rapidly multi- 
plied, and Poor Eichard, as a pseudonym of Ben- 
jamin Franklin, made him and his personal traits, 
which it so fitly displayed, familiar in every 
household, and the influence which he wielded by 
it was simply unbounded. 
In later years he published *' Father Abra- 

55 



BENJAMIN FEANKLIN 

ham's Speech," which was a comprehensive sum- 
ming up of all Poor Eichard's good things, ran- 
sacking all literature for proverbs of wit and 
wisdom and inventing many of his own, touching 
the conduct of life at all points, so far as utility 
and worldly advantage are concerned. The world 
greedily seized it and still cherishes it, for it may 
now be read, not in English only, but in French, 
German, Spanish, Italian, Eussian, Dutch, Bohe- 
mian, Modern Greek, Gaelic, and Portuguese. 
Under the title '' Science du Bonhomme Eich- 
ard " it has been thirty times printed in French 
and twice in Italian, and as " The Way to 
Wealth " twenty-seven times in English in pam- 
phlet form, and innumerable times as a broad- 
side. It is by far the most famous piece the Col- 
onies ever produced. No wonder, for if any man 
would follow its precepts as faithfully as Frank- 
lin did himself, he was sure to become healthy, 
wealthy, and wise. A cheerful temperament that 
was worth millions, and irresistible good humor, 
pervaded all he wrote. Sydney Smith, another 
example of the same traits, by way of playful 
menace, said to his daughter '' I will disinherit 
you, if you do not admire everything written by 
Franklin." 

From the time that his circumstances permitted 
him to do anything but work solely for daily 
bread, Franklin manifested and cultivated a con- 
stant interest in public affairs, and his unerring 
instinct for public service was as keen as if he had 
been specially trained to that end at Oxford or at 

56 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

Cambridge. His fellow citizens, recognizing his 
capacity and efficiency, eagerly availed themselves 
of his leadership in every public movement. Thus 
he became the founder or promoter of the first 
debating society for mutual culture and improve- 
ment in Philadelphia, the first subscription 
library, the first fire club, of the American Philo- 
sophical Society, and of what finally became the 
University of Pennsylvania, which still holds a 
deservedly high rank among institutions of learn- 
ing. Under his inspiring lead Philadelphia be- 
came better lighted, better paved, better policed, 
and better read than any other city on the con- 
tinent. As Clerk, and for many years a Member 
of the Assembly, Postmaster of Philadelphia, and 
Deputy Postmaster-General for the Continent, he 
rendered great service, and came to know the 
affairs of his own and the other Colonies, and 
thus became known himself better than any other 
man in the land. 

In 1754 he was the leading spirit in the Con- 
vention held at Albany, to form a plan for the 
common defence of the Colonies and the Empire 
against the French and Indians. It was Frank- 
lin who devised the broad and comprehensive 
scheme which the Convention adopted, many 
features of which subsequently appeared in the 
Constitution of the United States. But it was 
rejected by the Colonies because it gave too much 
power to the Crown, and by the British Govern- 
ment because it gave too much power to the 
Colonies — a sure proof of that wise moderation 

57 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

which always characterized its author. In the fol- 
lowing year he rendered great services to General 
Braddock, who had entered on his ill-fated expe- 
dition for the capture of Fort Duquesne without 
proper supplies or means of transportation, and 
after his calamitous defeat Franklin actually took 
the field with a considerable military force, and 
commanded on the frontier, building stockades 
and forts, and protecting the panic-stricken 
Colonists from the threatened onset of the enemy. 
Carlyle thus describes Franklin's services to 
Braddock : — 

" About New Year's Day, 1755, Braddock with his two 
regiments and completed apparatus got to sea; arrived 
20th February at Williamsburg, Virginia; found now 
that this was not the place to arrive at; that he would 
lose six weeks of marching by not having landed in 
Pennsylvania instead; found that his stores had been 
mispacked at Cork; that this had happened and also 
that — and, in short, found that chaos had been very 
considerably prevalent in this adventure of his, and 
did still in all that now lay round it prevail. Poor 
Braddock took the Colonial militia regiments; Colonel 
Washington, as aide-de-camp, took the Indians and ap- 
pendages. Colonel Chaos much presiding ; and, after in- 
finite delays and confused hagglings, got on march — 
2,000 regulars, and of all sorts say 4,000 strong. 

" Got on march, sprawled and haggled up the AUe- 
ghanies — such a commissariat, such a wagon service as 
was seldom seen before. Poor General and Army, he 
was like to be starved outright at one time, had not a 
certain Mr. Franklin come to him with charitable oxen 
with £500 worth provisions, live and dead, subscribed 

58 



BENJAMIN FEANKLIN 

for at Philadelphia. Mr. Benjamin Franklin, since 
celebrated over all the world, who did not much admire 
this iron tempered general with the pipe-clay brain. ' ' 

Thus, by the time he reached middle life, Frank- 
lin had become the best known and most impor- 
tant man in the Colonies ; but with all his varied 
work he had never lost sight of science and its 
practical application to the service of man, which 
was really his first love. His vast reading had 
made him a living encyclopsedia, and he had man- 
aged to acquire some knowledge of French, 
Italian, Spanish, and Latin, which then and after- 
wards stood hun in great stead. His inventive 
genius was called into constant play, and he made 
from time to time many new and useful inven- 
tions, for no one of which would he ever take a 
patent or any personal advantage to himself, for 
he said that as we enjoy great advantages from 
the inventions of others, we should be glad to give 
the world the benefit of our own. 

But his discoveries and inventions finally cul- 
minated in his studies and experiments in elec- 
tricity, and their startling and marvellous result 
made him as famous in all other countries as he 
already was in his own, and placed him in the 
very front rank of living men. The story of 
Franklin and his kite drawing the lightning from 
the clouds, and making positive practical proof of 
its identity with electricity, has been too often 
told to need to be repeated here. It was no lucky 
accident. It was seven years since the Leyden 

59 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

Jar, the first storage battery of electricity, was 
made, and during the whole interval Franklin and 
all the other scientists in the world interested in 
the subject had been studying and experimenting 
to find out what this mysterious substance was. 
He had been writing from 1747 to 1751 the results 
of his investigations to his friend Collinson in 
London, by whom they were read at the Royal 
Society, at first, as he says, only to be ignored or 
laughed at. 

In May, 1751, came Franklin's masterly but 
very modest paper declaring the identity of elec- 
tricity and lightning, and suggesting how by 
pointed iron electricity might be actually drawn 
from a storm cloud, and buildings and ships pro- 
tected from its danger. It was soon translated 
into French, German, and Latin, had great sales, 
and made a tremendous sensation. But Frank- 
lin's fame reached the highest point when D'Ali- 
bard, a French philosopher, following the sugges- 
tions in his pamphlet, constructed an apparatus 
exactly as Franklin had directed, and made actual 
demonstration of the truth of his theory, a month 
before the great discoverer himself flew his kite 
in his garden in Philadelphia. 

Franklin took the universal applause that fol- 
lowed as quietly and modestly as he had put forth 
his suggestions. It was all fun to him from the 
beginning. Dr. Priestley says that at the close of 
the first summer of his experiments, when it grew 
too hot to continue them, the Philosopher had a 
party on the banks of the Schuylkill, at which 

60 



BENJAMIN FEANKLIN 

spirits were first fired by a spark seiit_,from side 
to side through the river without any other con- 
ductor than the water, a turkey was killed for 
their dinner by the electrical shock and roasted 
by the electrical jack, before a fire kindled by the 
electrified bottle, when the health of all the 
famous electricians in England, Holland, France, 
and Germany was drunk in electrified bumpers 
under a discharge of guns from the electrical bat- 
tery. Honors and distinctions now crowded 
upon him : the Royal Society, as if to make quick 
amends for its previous neglect, by a unanimous 
vote made him a member, exempting him from 
the payment of all dues, and the next year with 
every circumstance of distinction awarded him 
the Copley Medal, and Yale and Harvard con- 
ferred their honorary degrees upon him. 

However much the people of Pennsylvania ap- 
preciated and enjoyed his growing fame, they 
were not willing to give him up to science, but en- 
listed his services and insisted upon his leader- 
ship in every great political question. When the 
dispute between the Penns as Proprietors and 
the people of Pennsylvania, on the claim of the 
former that their estates should be exempt from 
taxation, reached a crisis in 1756, the Provincial 
Assembly decided to appeal to the King in Coun- 
cil for a redress of their grievances, and who but 
Franklin should go to represent them? 

This vexatious business, finally ending in a com- 
promise which was on the whole satisfactory to 
his constituents, detained him in England for up- 

61 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

wards of five years — from the summer of 1757 
till 1762. Times and the man had changed since 
the stranded journeyman printer took lodgings 
in Little Britain at three and sixpence a week, and 
won his chief distinction by swimming in the 
Thames from Chelsea to the City. 

The houses of the great were now thrown wide 
open to him, and the modest house in Craven 
Street, where he took up his residence, and which 
is still marked by a tablet to commemorate the 
fact as one of the notable reminiscences of Lon- 
don, was thronged by great scientists to congratu- 
late him on his triumphs, and to witness at his 
own hands his scientific experiments. Congratu- 
latory letters reached him from all parts of Eu- 
rope. He made the acquaintance and friendship 
of such men as Priestley, Fothergill, Garrick, 
Lord Shelburne, Lord Stanhope, Edmund Burke, 
Adam Smith and David Hume, Dr. Robertson, 
Lord Karnes and David Hartley, with all of whom 
he enjoyed delightful intercourse. He witnessed 
the Coronation of George the Third, and revelled 
in the meetings of the Royal Society, where his 
welcome was very warm. Pitt, who had vastly 
weightier things upon his mind than Franklin's 
errand — Pitt, who afterwards as Lord Chatham 
was, as we shall see, one of his staunchest friends 
and admirers, he found inaccessible. 

At this time Franklin was a most intensely 
loyal British subject, and gloried in the anticipa- 
tion of the future greatness and power of the 
British Empire, of which the Colonies formed no 

62 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

mean part. In this respect, the Colonists whom 
he represented were all of the same mind. Green, 
in his '' History of the English People," says of 
them at this time : ' ' From the thought of separa- 
tion almost every American turned as yet with 
horror. The Colonists still looked to England as 
their home. They prided themselves on their 
loyalty, and they regarded the difficulties which 
hindered complete sympathy between the settle- 
ments and the mother country as obstacles which 
time and good sense could remove." 

He freely lent the aid of his powerful pen while 
in England to the maintenance of British inter- 
ests. In his pamphlet, to which great praise was 
awarded, on the question whether Canada or the 
sugar islands of Guadeloupe, both of which had 
been conquered, should be restored to France in 
the event of peace, and in which he stoutly main- 
tained the retention of Canada, he declared that 
a union of the Colonies to rebel against the mother 
country was impossible. " But," he added, 
*' when I say such a union is impossible, I mean 
without the most grievous tyranny and oppres- 
sion. People who have property in a country 
which they may lose, and privileges which they 
may endanger, are generally disposed to be quiet, 
and even to bear much rather than to hazard all. 
While the Government is mild and just, while im- 
portant civil and religious rights are secure, such 
subjects will be dutiful and obedient. The waves 
do not rise but when the winds blow. ^Vliat such 
an administration as the Duke of Alva's in the 

63 



BENJAMIN FBANKLIN 

Netherlands might produce I know not, but this 
I think I have a right to deem impossible." When 
Mr. Pratt, afterwards Lord Camden, a stalwart 
friend of America through all her troubles, said 
to him, ' ' For all that you Americans say of your 
loyalty and all that, I know that you will one day 
throw off your dependence on this country, and 
notwithstanding your boasted affection for it, you 
will set up for independence," he answered, 
'' No such idea was ever entertained by the 
Americans, nor will any such ever enter their 
heads unless you grossly abuse them." ** Very 
true," replied Pratt, " that is one of the main 
causes I see will happen, and will produce the 
event." 

But Franklin was more than a staunch loyalist. 
He was an Imperialist in the most stalwart sense 
of the word, and on a very broad gauge. His 
biographer, Parton, truly says : * * It was one of 
Franklin's most cherished opinions that the great- 
ness of England and the happiness of America 
depended chiefly upon their being cordially united. 
The ' country ' which Franklin loved was not 
England nor America, but the great and glorious 
Empire which these two united to form." 

And Franklin himself wrote to Lord Kames on 
this visit: " No one can more sincerely rejoice 
than I do on the reduction of Canada, and this is 
not merely as I am a Colonist but as I am a 
Briton. I have long been of opinion that the 
foundations of the future grandeur and stability 
of the British Empire lie in America ; and though, 

64 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

like other foundations, they are low and little 
now, they are nevertheless broad and strong 
enough to support the greatest political structure 
that human wisdom ever yet erected. I am, there- 
fore, by no means for restoring Canada. If we 
keep it, all the country from the St. Lawrence to 
the Mississippi will in another century be filled 
with British people. Britain itself will become 
vastly more populous by the immense increase of 
its commerce; the Atlantic Sea will be covered 
with your trading ships, and your naval power 
thence continually increasing will extend your in- 
fluence round the whole globe and awe the world. ' ' 

Again he wrote, in 1774 : " It has long appeared 
to me that the only true British policy was that 
which aimed at the good of the whole British Em- 
pire, not that which sought the advantage of one 
part in the disadvantage of the others ; therefore, 
all measures of procuring gain to the Mother 
Country arising from loss to her Colonies, and all 
of gain to the Colonies arising from or occasion- 
ing loss to Britain, especially where the gain was 
small and the loss great. ... I in my own mind 
condemned as improper, partial, unjust, and mis- 
chievous, tending to create dissensions, and 
weaken that Union on which the strength, solidity, 
and duration of the Empire greatly depended; 
and I opposed, as far as my little powers went, 
all proceedings, either here or in America, that in 
my opinion had such tendency. ' ' 

This first protracted stay in England was evi- 
dently one of the happiest periods of his long and 

65 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

useful life. For the first time he enjoyed abun- 
dant leisure, and the opportunity to indulge to the 
full among congenial and sympathetic friends his 
joyous social disposition and love of the best com- 
pany. He made many delightful country visits, 
and excursions to Scotland, France, and Holland, 
and greatly enjoyed the recognition he received 
in the degrees of LL. D. at Edinburgh, and 
D. C. L. at Oxford. He sought out the humble 
birthplace of his father at Ecton, and worshipped 
in the ancient church around which his rude fore- 
fathers slept. In 1762 he returned to America 
with regret, apparently almost wishing to come 
back and spend the rest of his days here. For not 
long after his return he wrote to Mr. Strahan, 
one of the friends he left behind him : " No friend 
can wish me more in England than I do myself. 
But before I go everything I am concerned in 
must be so settled here as to make another return 
to America unnecessary; " and again, '' I own 
that I sometimes suspect my love to England and 
my friends there seduces me a little, and makes 
my own reasons for going over appear very good 
ones." 

So there was at least a possibility that he might 
become a resident of England for the rest of his 
life, and thus the wheels of Time might have been 
set back awhile, in fixing the date of the final sepa- 
ration of the American Colonies from Great 
Britain, which sooner or later was obviously in- 
evitable. 

But, wholly unexpectedly to himself, Franklin 

66 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

was destined to spend ten years more in England, 
years equally momentous to himself, to the Col- 
onies which he represented, and to the Mother 
Country of which he was so loyal and devoted a 
son. 

Hardly had he reached Philadelphia on his re- 
turn from his five years' sojourn here, when there 
was a new outbreak of the old trouble between the 
people of the Province and the Penns as Pro- 
prietaries of Pennsylvania as to their claim to 
exemption of their property from taxation. 
Worse still, the ominous news came from London 
that George Grenville had determined upon the 
passage of the dreaded Stamp Act, and thereby 
to impose taxes upon the Colonies by Act of Par- 
liament, in defiance of what they claimed as their 
immemorial right and usage to pay only such in- 
ternal taxes as their own provincial governments 
should impose. They did not dispute or seek to 
shirk their obligations to grant aid to the King, 
and make their just contribution to the common 
cause, but insisted upon their right to do it in 
what they claimed to be the only constitutional 
way, by the vote of their own representatives, and 
that taxation without representation — ^without 
their consent — was an injustice to which they 
would not submit. 

No sooner did these dismal tidings reach Penn- 
sylvania, than Franklin was again dispatched to 
London to do the best he i30uld to prevent the dis- 
astrous measure. And what was now of much less 
importance, to present to the King the petition 

67 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

of the people of Pennsylvania, that he would take 
the government of that Province into his own 
hands, they making such compensation to the 
Penns as should be just. But of course the ques- 
tion of the injustice of taxation without repre- 
sentation and contrary to ancient usage, which 
affected all the Colonies alike, swallowed up all 
local issues. Franklin arrived only in time to find 
that the immediate passage of the odious measure 
was inevitable. He joined with the agents of the 
other Colonies in an appeal to Grenville, but all 
their efforts were fruitless. " We might," said 
Franklin, '' as well have hindered the sun's set- 
ting. Less resistance was made to the Act in the 
House of Commons than to a common turnpike 
Bill, and the affair passed with so little noise that 
in town they scarcely knew the nature of what was 
doing. ' ' 

Having done all that he could to prevent the 
passage of the Act, Franklin was inclined to coun- 
sel submission. But public opinion in the Colonies 
was obstinate, and by unanimous action they re- 
fused to obey it, or to take the stamped paper on 
any terms. To the great disgust of his constitu- 
ents, by whom he was denounced as a traitor, he 
went so far, at the request of the Government, as 
to nominate a stamp distributor under the Act for 
Pennsylvania. But he and all the other officials 
under the Act were compelled by the anger of the 
colonists to decline or resign. Agreements were 
signed everywhere not to buy any British goods 
imported, and English trade fell off to such a 

68 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

degree that the new Administration under Lord 
Rockingham, who had opposed the Act, very 
quickly considered its repeal. 

One of the most celebrated incidents of Frank- 
lin's career was his examination by a Committee 
of the House of Commons, which was considering 
the question of repeal. He was summoned before 
it to give evidence respecting the state of affairs 
in America — a subject on which he was better in- 
formed than any other man in the world. 

Without passion, with perfect coolness and ab- 
solute knowledge, he demonstrated that the Act 
was unjust, inexpedient, and impossible of execu- 
tion, and gave convincing proof that it should be 
immediately repealed. 

His testimony is one of the most memorable 
pieces of evidence in the English language, and 
some of his answers can never be forgotten. Be- 
ing asked what was the temper of America 
towards Great Britain before 1763 — (it will be 
remembered that the Stamp Act was passed in 
1765)— he said: 

** The best in the world. They submitted willingly 
to the Government of the Crown, and paid in their 
Courts obedience to the Acts of Parliament. They had 
not only a respect but an affection for Great Britain, 
for its laws, its customs, and manners, and even a fond- 
ness for its fashions that greatly increased the commerce. 
Natives of Britain were always treated with particular 
regard. To be an Old England Man was of itself a 
character of some respect, and gave a kind of rank 
among us. . . . They considered the Parliament as the 

69 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

great bulwark of their liberties and privileges, and al- 
ways spoke of it with the utmost respect and veneration. 
Arbitrary Ministers, they thought, might possibly at 
times attempt to oppress them, but they relied on it 
that Parliament on application would always give 
redress. ' ' 

*' Q. Can anything less than a military force carry 
the Stamp Act into execution? 

''A. I do not see how a military force can be applied 
to that purpose. 

'' Q. Why may it not? 

'' A. Suppose a military force sent into America they 
will find nobody in arms. What are they then to do? 
They cannot force a man to take stamps who chooses to 
do without them. They will not find a rebellion: they 
may indeed make one. 

'^ Q. If the Act is not repealed, what do you think 
will be the consequences? 

" A. A total loss of the respect and affection the 
people of America bear to this Country, and of all the 
commerce that depends on that respect and affection. 

'^ Q. If the Stamp Act should be repealed, and the 
Crown should make a requisition to the Colonies for a 
sura of money, would they grant it? 

'* A. I believe they would. 

'' Q. Why do you think so? 

'' A. 1 can speak for the Colony I live in. I had it in 
instruction from the Assembly to assure the Ministry, 
that as they had always done, so they should always 
think it their duty to grant such aids to the Crown as 
were suitable to their circumstances and abilities, when- 
ever called upon for that purpose in the usual constitu- 
tional manner. 

*' Q. Would they do this for a British concern, as 

70 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

suppose a war in some part of Europe that did not 
affect them? 

'' A. Yes, for anything that concerned the general 
interest. They consider themselves a part of the whole. 

** Q. Don't you know that there is in the Pennsyl- 
vania Charter an express reservation of the right of 
Parliament to lay taxes there ? 

" A. 1 know there is a clause in the Charter by which 
the King grants that he will levy no taxes on the in- 
habitants unless it be with the consent of the Assembly 
or by Act of Parliament. 

" Q. How then could the Assembly of Pennsylvania 
assert that laying a tax on them by the Stamp Act was 
an infringement of their right? 

"A. They understand it thus — By the same Charter 
and otherwise, they are entitled to all the privileges and 
liberties of Englishmen. They find in the Great 
Charters and the Petition and Declaration of Rights 
that one of the privileges of English subjects is that they 
are not to be taxed but by their common consent. They 
have, therefore, relied upon it from the first settlement 
of the Province that the Parliament never would, nor 
could, by color of that clause in the Charter, assume a 
right of taxing them till it had qualified itself by admit- 
ting representatives from the people to be taxed, who 
ought to make a part of that common consent." 

So clear, convincing, and irresistible was 
Franklin's testimony, that the repeal of the Stamp 
Act followed immediately. His evidence before 
the Committee closed on the 13th of February. 
On the 21st, General Conway moved for leave to 
introduce in the House of Commons a Bill to Re- 
peal — which was carried. The Bill took its third 

71 .' 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

reading in that House on the 5th of March. It 
passed the House of Lords on the 17th, and on 
the 18th of March, only five weeks after Franklin 
had been heard, the King signed the Bill. 

The debates on that critical occasion, which 
promised for the moment to reconcile England 
and her Colonies forever, have been but scantily 
reported, but Pitt, in support of the repeal, in one 
of his last speeches as the Great Commoner, is 
said to have surpassed his own great fame ; and 
Burke's renown as a Parliamentary orator was 
established. Macaulay says: '* Two great orators 
and statesmen belonging to two different genera- 
tions repeatedly put forth all their powers in de- 
fence of the Bill (for repeal). The House of 
Commons heard Pitt for the last time and Burke 
for the first time, and was in doubt to which of 
them the palm of eloquence should be assigned. 
It was indeed a splendid sunset and a splendid 
dawn, ' ' 

Franklin's own personal way of celebrating the 
joyous event of the Repeal of the Stamp Act was 
peculiarly characteristic of that spirit of fun and 
good humor which pervaded his whole life. He 
made it the occasion of sending a new gown to 
his wife. He wrote her : ' ' As the Stamp Act is 
at length repealed, I am willing you should have 
a new gown, which you may suppose I did not 
send sooner, as I knew you would not like to be 
finer than your neighbours unless in a gown of 
your own spinning. Had the trade between the 
two countries totally ceased, it was a comfort to 

72 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

me to recollect, that I had once been clothed from 
head to foot in woollen and linen of my wife's 
manufacture, that I never was prouder of any 
dress in my life, and that she and her daughter 
might do it again if it was necessary. I told the 
Parliament, that it was my opinion, before the 
old clothes of the Americans were worn out, they 
might have new ones of their own making. I have 
sent you a fine piece of Pompadour satin, fourteen 
yards, cost eleven shillings a yard, a silk negligee 
and petticoat of brocaded lute-string for my dear 
Sally, with two dozen gloves, four bottles of lav- 
ender water, and two little reels. The reels are 
to screw on the edge of the table when she would 
wind silk or thread." 

The repeal, following so closely as it did on the 
close of Franklin's examination as its necessary 
sequence, raised to a very high point his reputa- 
tion in England, where he already commanded 
universal respect and esteem, and roused the 
Colonies to the wildest enthusiasm over his name. 
His constituents in Philadelphia, quite ashamed of 
their recent criticism upon him, gave him the 
whole credit of the great result. 

Everybody on both sides of the water, except 
the King and the " household troops," as Burke 
called them, hoped with him that '* that day's 
danger and honor would have been a bond to 
hold us all together forever. But alas! that, 
with other pleasing visions is long since van- 
ished." 

The attempt to impose taxation by Act of Par- 

73 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

liament on the Colonies was almost immediately 
renewed, and usliered in that long and unhappy 
controversy which finally resulted in the accumu- 
lation of oppressive measures on the one side, and 
acts of resistance on the other, that brought the 
Colonists to an appeal to arms in defence of what 
they deemed to be their rights and liberties. 

We will not undertake to rake over the ashes 
of the memorable contest, to measure out praise 
or blame to one side or the other. Historians 
are now happily agreed that the leaders on both 
sides in the great struggle were actuated by hon- 
est intentions and patriotic motives. It was im- 
possible for them to see in the same light the 
great questions of right and of policy which di- 
vided them, and which nothing but the final sepa- 
ration of the Colonies from the Crown could 
solve. 

It might be claimed with some show of reason 
that, at the outset at least, it was not a contest 
between the English people and the American 
people, but between the King with a submissive 
Ministry and Parliament here and his subjects 
beyond the sea, and that a great part of the Eng- 
lish people had very little to do with it. If we 
may accept the statements of your own most ap- 
proved historians, large portions of the English 
people were no more represented in the Parlia- 
ment than the Colonists themselves. 

I may be permitted to quote once more in this 
connection from Green's " History of the English 
People." He is speaking of Parliament between 

74 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

1760 and 1767, the very time we have been con- 
sidering : — 

" Great towns like Manchester and Birmingham re- 
mained without a member, while members still sat for 
boroughs which, like Old Sarum, had actually vanished 
from the face of the earth. , . . Some boroughs were 
* the King's boroughs,' others obediently returned nom- 
inees of the Ministry of the day, others were ' close 
boroughs ' in the hands of jobbers like the Duke of New- 
castle, who at one time returned a third of all the 
borough members in the House. . . . Even in the 
counties the suffrage was ridiculously limited and un- 
equal. Out of a population of eight millions of English 
people, only a hundred and sixty thousand were electors 
at all! " 

What would be thought to-day of great ques- 
tions of national policy being decided by a House 
of Commons in which neither Birmingham nor 
Manchester had a representative, and in the elec- 
tion of whose members only one person out of 
fifty of the English people had a vote ! 

At any rate, we may, I think, exchange con- 
gratulations to-night, that with our great struggle 
the good people of Birmingham had literally 
nothing to do, and at least a considerable portion 
of the people of England hardly more. 

But you get an idea of the vast difficulties with 
which Franklin, who gallantly remained at his 
post in London through all those weary years 
from 1766 to 1775, had to contend, as the repre- 
sentative of the United Colonies, for, besides 

75 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

Pennsylvania, he was presently made tlie agent of 
Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Georgia. '' His 
great powers," says John Fiske, " were earnestly 
devoted to preventing a separation between Eng- 
land and America. His methods were eminently 
conciliatory, but the independence of character 
with which he told unwelcome truths made him 
an object of intense dislike to the King and his 
friends, who regarded him as aiming to under- 
mine the Royal authority in America." But it is 
not to be forgotten that Chatham, Burke, Fox, 
Barre, and Conway, all champions of the cause 
of the Colonists, were regarded in the same light 
by the same party. 

And strange to say, down to this time Franklin 
had no suspicion that the obnoxious measures of 
the Ministry had their origin or chief backing in 
the Royal closet. " I hope nothing that has hap- 
pened or may happen," he wrote in the spring 
of 1769, '' will diminish in the least our loyalty 
to our Sovereign, or affection for this nation in 
general. I can scarcely conceive a King of better 
dispositions, of more exemplary virtues, or more 
truly desirous of promoting the welfare of his 
subjects." '' The body of this people, too, is of 
a noble and generous nature, loving and honor- 
ing the spirit of liberty, and hating arbitrary 
power of all sorts. We have many, very many, 
friends among them." 

No doubt, however, he did in the end incur the 
King's hearty displeasure; and a story that has 
long been current would seem to indicate that the 

76 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

royal mind at last opposed even his views on 
electricity, of which it might have been supposed 
that Franklin was himself king. The substance 
of Franklin's discovery was that sharp points of 
iron would draw electricity from the clouds, and 
he recommended lightning rods with such sharp 
points. The story is that in the heat of his ani- 
mosity against the Americans and Franklin the 
King insisted, on political grounds, that on Kew 
Palace they should have blunt knobs instead of 
sharp points. The question between sharps and 
blunts became a Court question, the Courtiers 
siding with the King, their adversaries with 
Franklin. The King called upon Sir John Prin- 
gle, President of the Royal Society, for an opinion 
on his side in favour of the knobs, but Pringle 
hinted in reply that the laws of Nature were not 
changeable at the Royal pleasure. How far the 
story in detail is true can only now be guessed 
from a well-known epigram that was actually 
current : — 

" While you, great George, for safety hunt, 
And sharp conductors change for blunt, 

The empire's out of joint. 
Franklin a wiser course pursues, 
And all your thunder fearless views, 

By keeping to the point. ' ' 

During these ten years in London Franklin 
kept up a lively fire of pamphlets and communi- 
cations to the newspapers, advocating with all the 
resources of his wisdom, wit, and satire the integ- 

77 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

rity of the Empire and the cause of the Colonists. 
Two of these — ' ' Rules for reducing a great 
Empire to a small one," and " An Edict of the 
King of Prussia " — had a tremendous circula- 
tion, and became, and continued for many years, 
very famous. He continued his philosophical in- 
vestigations, and was also the most popular 
diner-out in London, where the charms of his 
conversation made him a universal favourite. He 
maintained his intimate association with the most 
distinguished men of science and learning, and a 
most loving and constant correspondence with his 
wife, daughter, and sister, from whom his pro- 
tracted separation was to his great and tender 
heart a source of constant anxiety and privation. 
But at last, as the prolonged contest waxed 
hotter and hotter, as the representative of all the 
Colonies he became the very storm centre round 
which all the elements of discord and growing 
hatred gathered in full force, and was often the 
target for the attacks of both sides. In England 
the Ministry regarded him as too much of an 
American, and the most ardent patriots at home 
as too much of an Englishman. He evidently 
thought that both sides were in fault. Here he 
constantly exerted all his great powers to justify 
his countrymen and uphold their cause. To them 
by every mail he urged patience and moderation, 
begging them to give the Ministry no ground 
against them. As Mr. Parton truly says, '' His 
entire influence and all the resources of his mind 
were employed from the beginning of the contro- 

78 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

versy in 1765 to the first conflict in 1775, to the 
one object of healing the breach and preventing 
the separation," 

But at such times, when the air is charged with 
mutual suspicion and hatred, when forebodings 
of war are agitating the public mind, what Hamlet 
says is more true than ever: 

** Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt 
not escape calumny. ' ' 

The Court party professed to regard him as the 
embodiment of all the alleged sins and offences 
which they imputed to the entire body of Colo- 
nists, and they determined at all hazards to make 
an end of him. The news was on the way of the 
famous Boston tea party, in which a body of lead- 
ing citizens of the New England capital in dis- 
guise boarded the ships that brought the tea, on 
which the obnoxious duty had been imposed, and 
emptied it all into salt water. The whole harbor 
of Boston became a seething cauldron of East 
India Company's tea on which no duty had been 
paid. Passive resistance was at last breaking 
out into open rebellion. Probably the frenzy of 
excitement on both sides had never reached such 
fever heat — and in January, 1774, the storm 
burst on the head of the devoted Franklin. 

I shall not attempt to describe the scene in the 
Cockpit at the meeting of the Committee of Lords 
of the Privy Council, met to pass upon the Peti- 
tion of the Assembly of Massachusetts Bay 

79 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

for the removal of the Governor and Lieutenant- 
Governor. Franklin had transmitted to the 
Speaker of the Assembly, as in duty bound, their 
letters showing, as he believed, a studied purpose 
on the part of the colonial Royal officers to bring 
down more stringent measures upon the Colonists 
and to abridge their liberties, and he had sent 
them, as he was expressly authorized to do, for 
the avowed purpose of mitigating the wrath of 
the Colonists against the Government at home 
which, as they believed, had initiated and was 
solely responsible for those measures. 

The hearing before the Committee of the Privy 
Council, on the petition of the people of Massa- 
chusetts to remove these officers because of the 
letters, was made the occasion of a ferocious at- 
tack upon Franklin, who had presented the Peti- 
tion. The Solicitor-General overwhelmed him 
with vituperation, while the Lords of the Com- 
mittee applauded with jeers, and cheers, an attack 
universally condemned ever since. His calm self- 
command and unruffled dignity, as he stood for 
an hour to receive the pitiless storm of calumny, 
in such marked contrast to the conduct of his 
assailant and his titled applauders, is striking 
evidence of his conscious innocence. Upon the 
canvas of history he stands out from that ignoble 
scene a heroic figure, bearing silent testimony to 
the cause of the Colonists for whose sake he suf- 
fered — not a muscle moved, not a heartbeat 
quickened — and casting into the shade of lasting 
oblivion all those who joined in the assault upon 

80 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

him. He said to Dr. Priestley next day that ' * he 
had never before been so sensible of the power 
of a good conscience ; for that, if he had not con- 
sidered the thing for which he had been so much 
insulted as one of the best actions of his life, and 
what he should certainly do again in the same cir- 
sumstances, he could not have supported it." An 
eye-witness who watched him closely says, " He 
stood conspicuously erect without the smallest 
movement of any part of his body. The muscles 
of his face had been previously composed so as 
to afford a tranquil expression of countenance, 
and he did not suffer the slightest alteration of 
it to appear during the continuance of the 
speech. ' ' 

He has been blamed by several writers of high 
repute, but on what exact ground is not definitely 
specified. From whose hands he received the let- 
ters is not known. He did receive them confiden- 
tially " from a gentleman of character and dis- 
tinction," but who he was was a secret which, at 
any cost to himself, Franklin was bound to keep, 
and he carried it to the grave with him at the cost 
of all the dust and obloquy that has been thrown 
about the matter. Having come honorably into 
possession of the letters, he could not have with- 
held the knowledge of them from the leaders of 
the Colony to whom he was responsible for his 
conduct, without a breach of trust towards them, 
and his countrymen, who justly regarded the as- 
sault upon him as an affront to themselves, ac- 
cepted his own view and statement of the matter. 

81 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

There is no doubt that the powerful invectives 
of Wedderburn, which were extremely eloquent 
and ingenious, and became the talk of the town, 
did seriously impair the prestige of Franklin dur- 
ing the rest of his stay in London. On the follow- 
ing day he was summarily dismissed from his 
office of Deputy Postmaster-General. But all this 
did not deprive him of the respect and esteem of 
the distinguished friends whom his character and 
commanding abilities had gathered about him. 

* ' I do not find, ' ' he wrote a fortnight after the 
assault, " that I have lost a single friend on the 
occasion. All have visited me repeatedly with 
affectionate assurances of their unaltered respect 
and affection, and many of distinction, with whom 
I had before but slight acquaintance. ' ' 

In demonstration of his own fidelity to Frank- 
lin, Lord Chatham not long afterwards, on the 
occasion of a great debate on American affairs 
in the House of Lords, invited him to attend in 
the House, being sure that his presence in that 
day's debate would be of more service to America 
than his own, and later, in reply to a fling of Lord 
Sandwich at Franklin, he took occasion to declare 
" that if he were the first Minister of this country, 
and had the care of settling this momentous busi- 
ness, he should not be ashamed of publicly calling 
to his assistance a person so perfectly acquainted 
with the whole of American affairs as the gentle- 
man alluded to, and so injuriously reflected on: 
one, whom all Europe held in high estimation for 
his knowledge and wisdom, and ranked with our 

82 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

Boyles and Newtons; who was an honor not to 
the English nation only, but to human nature. ' ' 

Franklin continued his efforts at conciliation as 
long as he remained in London. He actually ad- 
vised Massachusetts to pay for the tea which had 
been destroyed, for which again he was rudely 
blamed by the leaders in Boston. He even offered, 
without orders to do so, at his own risk, and with- 
out knowing whether his action would be sustained 
at home, to pay the whole damage of destroying 
the tea in Boston, provided the Acts against that 
Province were repealed, and to his last hour in 
London he labored without ceasing to heal the 
growing breach. Hostile critics have insinuated 
doubts of his sincerity in all his efforts for peace 
and union, but the evidence of his fidelity is over- 
whelming. 

Speaking of Franklin in London from 1764 to 
1774, The EncyclopcBdia Britannica says, '' He 
remitted no effort to find some middle ground of 
conciliation. . . . With a social influence never 
possessed probably by any other American rep- 
resentative at the English Court he would doubt- 
less have prevented the final alienation of the 
Colonies, if such a result under the circumstances 
had been possible. But it was not. ' ' 

Let me cite another witness out of a host that 
might be called: the Annual Register for 1790 
announcing Franklin's death says ^' Previous to 
this period (the affair at the Cockpit) it is a testi- 
mony to truth and bare justice to his memory to 
observe that he used his utmost endeavor to 

83 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

prevent a breach between Great Britain and 
America. ' ' 

Dr. Priestley, who spent with him the whole of 
his last day in England, says of the conversation, 
* ' The unity of the British Empire in all its parts 
was a favorite idea of his. He used to compare 
it to a beautiful china vase, which if ever broken 
could never be put together again, and so great 
an admirer was he of the British Constitution that 
he said he saw no inconvenience from its being 
extended over a great part of the globe." 

Professor Tyler, in his Literary History of the 
American Revolution, describes Franklin at the 
date of the Battle of Lexington as " a man who 
having been resident in England during the pre- 
vious ten years had there put all his genius, all 
his energy of heart and will, all his tact and 
shrewdness, all his powers of fascination, into the 
effort to keep the peace between these two kindred 
peoples, to save from disruption their glorious 
and already planetary empire, and especially to 
avert the very appeal to force that had at last 
been made." 

But Franklin's efforts were of no avail. His 
mission of mediation and conciliation had failed, 
his dream of an imperial and perpetual union of 
England and the Colonies, as an Empire, one and 
inseparable, had vanished. The measures taken 
on both sides rendered any reconciliation impos- 
sible, and in March, 1775, he sailed for home, to 
throw in his lot with his own countrymen — ar- 
riving at Philadelphia two weeks after they had 

84 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

drawn the sword and thrown away the scabbard, 
and the Battle of Lexington had begun the actual 
"War of Independence. 

I have now brought Franklin to the great part- 
ing of the ways, to the point where he ceased to 
be a British subject and became an American 
citizen, bound now to secure and maintain the 
cause of the Colonies with all his might, and as 
loyally as he had thus far sought to reconcile the 
Colonies and the Mother Country, 

I may not on this occasion pursue further the 
narrative of his life, except to indicate how clearly 
it displayed his astounding abilities and capacity 
for public service, his enlightened patriotism and 
his rare devotion to duty. No sooner had he ar- 
rived in Philadelphia after his ten years' absence 
than his fellow citizens deeming him more than 
ever the indispensable man, made him a member 
of the Continental Congress, where he was one of 
the Committee of five appointed by the Congress 
to prepare the famous Declaration of Independ- 
ence, the other four members being Jefferson, 
John Adams, Sherman, and Livingston. The 
declaration drawn by Jefferson was only slightly 
amended by Franklin, who signed it with the other 
members of Congress. It will presently be seen 
that eleven years afterwards he also signed the 
Constitution of the United States, which he had a 
hand in making. To have signed both of these 
historical instruments is equivalent in American 
history to the highest patent of nobility, only five 
others sharing the honor with Franklin. 

85 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

But, in spite of the Declaration of Independence, 
the cause of the Colonists was in danger of be- 
coming hardly better than hopeless unless they 
could secure foreign aid and alliances — and, who 
again but Franklin, the printer's apprentice, the 
veteran diplomatist, the scientist of world-wide 
fame, the accomplished linguist, the one man 
of letters whose works had been translated into 
many languages, and the most experienced man of 
affairs on the Continent, could be chosen for that 
arduous and delicate service? He was almost im- 
mediately dispatched to Paris for that purpose. 
Although he had now passed his seventieth year, 
and was already beginning to feel the infirmities 
of age, he consented to serve, and there for nine 
years more of exile he discharged his diplomatic 
duties with such wisdom, energy, pertinacity, and 
tact, and such marvellous shrewdness that the 
much needed supplies of money and military 
stores were from time to time obtained and the 
Colonists enabled to maintain their footing in the 
field. After the Battle of Saratoga, which has 
been justly described as one of the decisive battles 
of history, the Treaties of Commerce and Alliance 
were signed which powerfully assisted the Colo- 
nists to make good their Declaration. 

This brilliant achievement was chiefly due to 
the skill and sagacity of Franklin, and it was 
largely aided by his marvellous personal popular- 
ity among all classes of the French people. His 
arrival in Paris was the signal for a tremendous 
outburst of popular enthusiasm, which met with 

86 



BENJAMIN FEANKLIN 

a hearty response througliout Europe, and it ex- 
tended at once to tlie fashionable world and to the 
philosophers and scholars as well as to the popu- 
lace. 

'' His virtues and renown," says Lacretelle, 
*' negotiated for him; and before the second year 
of his mission had expired no one conceived it 
possible to refuse fleets and armies to the country- 
men of Franklin," 

The German, Schlosser, says : — 

** Franklin's appearance in the Paris Salons, even 
before he began to negotiate was an event of great im- 
portance to the whole of Europe. Paris at that time set 
the fashion for the civilized world, and the admiration 
qf Franklin carried to a degree approaching folly pro- 
duced a remarkable effect on the fashionable circles of 
Paris. His dress, the simplicity of his external appear- 
ance, the friendly meekness of the old man, and the ap- 
parent humility of the Quaker procured for freedom a 
mass of votaries among the court circles ..." 

Pictures of him appeared in every window, and 
portraits, busts, medallions, medals, bearing his 
familiar head were in every house and every hand. 

A French writer of the day, in his description 
of Franklin at the Court, says : ' ' Franklin ap- 
peared at Court in the dress of an American cul- 
tivator. His straight unpowdered hair, his round 
hat, his brown coat formed a contrast with the 
laced and embroidered coats, and the powdered 
and perfumed heads of the courtiers of Ver- 

87 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

sailles. This novelty turned the enthusiastic 
heads of the French women. Elegant entertain- 
ments were given to Dr. Franklin, who to the 
reputation of a philosopher added the patriotic 
virtues which had invested him with the noble 
character of an Apostle of Liberty. I was present 
at one of these entertainments when the most 
beautiful woman of three hundred was selected 
to place a crown of laurels upon the white head 
of the American philosopher, and two kisses upon 
his cheeks." 

An American Ambassador of to-day still aif ects 
similar simplicity of dress by Act of Congress, 
but he would hardly know how to take such a 
reception as was thus accorded to the venerable 
philosopher. 

But all this incense did not turn his head, which 
he kept level for the important affairs that he had 
in hand. 

The amount and variety of business which fell 
upon him would have taxed the energies and 
capacity of the strongest man in middle life, and 
his health was already beginning to decline. He 
was obliged to act not only as Ambassador, but in 
lieu of a Board of War, Board of Treasury, Prize 
Court, Commissary of Prisoners, Consul, and 
dealer in cargoes which came from America. 
When Peace happily returned he took an active 
and important part in negotiating the final Treaty 
with Great Britain, and no one in the world re- 
joiced more heartily than he in the restoration 
of friendly relations between Great Britain and 



BENJAMIN FKANKLIN 

the United States. It would be impossible to de- 
scribe in anything short of a volume the activity, 
the brilliancy, and the success of his long years in 
Paris. 

It was exceedingly fortunate for both countries 
at this time, that in spite of the intervening con- 
test of so many years, Franklin in his important 
post of Ambassador in Paris still retained the 
esteem and friendship of many distinguished 
Englishmen whose acquaintance he had made dur- 
ing his fifteen years' residence in London. To 
two of these — Lord Shelburne and David Hart- 
ley — are posterity indebted for much of the wis- 
dom, moderation and statesmanship on the part 
of Great Britain which contributed so largely to 
the Treaty of Peace. The first overtures came 
from Franklin to Lord Shelburne, afterwards the 
first Marquis of Lansdowne, Minister of the Col- 
onies, who responded by sending a confidential 
mission to Franklin, with a letter which concluded, 
*' I wish to retain the same simplicity and good 
faith which subsisted between us in transactions 
of less importance." 

Presently Mr. Fox, as Minister of Foreign 
Aifairs, sent Thomas Grenville over to represent 
him in the negotiations. Great Britain then had 
no diplomatic representative at the French Court, 
and so it came about, as Bancroft says, that 
Franklin, the Deputy Postmaster-General, who 
had been dismissed in disgrace in 1774, now as the 
envoy of the rebel Colonies at the request of Great 
Britain introduced the son of the author of the 

89 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

Stamp Act to the representative of the Bourbon 
King. 

The final negotiations of the Treaty on the part 
of England were entrusted to Franklin's lifelong 
friend, Mr, David Hartley, in whose apartments 
in the Hotel de York the definitive Treaty was 
signed. The credit and honor of the negotiation 
on the American side must be divided between 
Franklin, Jay, and Adams, to whom, for this great 
service, their countrymen owe an incalculable debt 
of gratitude. 

At the signing of one of the Treaties in Paris 
Franklin is said to have worn the same old suit of 
spotted Manchester velvet which he had last worn 
on the fatal day at the Cockpit years before, when 
Wedderburn attacked him, showing how deeply, 
on that occasion, the iron had entered into his 
soul. 

In view of his fifteen years ' service in England 
and ten in France, of the immense obstacles and 
difficulties which he had to overcome, of the art 
and wisdom which he displayed and the incalcul- 
able value to the country of the Treaties which he 
negotiated, he still stands as by far the greatest 
of American diplomatists. 

In his eightieth year, quite worn out by his 
labors and infirmities, he returned to his '' dear 
Philadelphia " to spend the brief remnant of his 
days, as he hoped, in rest and retirement, but that 
was not to be. He was immediately elected Presi- 
dent of Pennsylvania — an office of great respon- 
sibility, in which he continued for three years, 

90 



BENJAMIN . FEANKLIN 

** I had not firmness enough," he said, " to resist the 
unanimous desire of my country folks; and I find my- 
self harnessed again in their service for another year. 
They engrossed the prime of my life. They have eaten 
ray flesh, and seem resolved now to pick my bones. ' ' 

In 1787, at the age of 81, he was a member of 
that remarkable body of men who met to frame 
the Constitution of the United States, and it was 
most fortunate for the nation that he was so. In 
spite of his great age, he attended all the sessions 
five hours a day for four months, and took an 
active part in the discussions and committees. He 
it was who proposed the amendment by means of 
which the States came together to form a more 
perfect union. The small States had been con- 
tending most vehemently and persistently for ab- 
solute and entire equality. The large States were 
equally tenacious for a proportional representa- 
tion. Agreement seemed impossible until Frank- 
lin in Committee proposed the simple compromise, 
which was adopted, and on which the Constitution 
has thus far safely rested, that in the Senate all 
States, great and small, should have an equal vote, 
but in the House of Eepresentatives each State 
should have a representation proportioned to its 
population, and that all Bills to raise or expend 
money must originate there. 

He gave close attention to all the great questions 
discussed in the Convention, which sat in secrei 
session. As he was too infirm to stand and speak 
he was permitted to write out what he had to say 

91 



BENJAMIN FEANKLIN 

to be read for him by a fellow member, and so it 
came about that liis are the only speeches reported 
entire, and they are very brief and pithy. On one 
occasion, when there seemed no prospect of any 
further progress because of hopeless dissensions, 
he moved that prayer be resorted to at each day's 
opening of the Convention as the only remedy. 

" I have lived, Sir, a long time," he said, " and the 
longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this 
truth : that God governs in the affairs of men. And if 
a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, 
is it probable that an Empire can rise without His aid? 
We have been assured. Sir, in the sacred writings that 
' except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain 
that build it. ' I firmly believe this ; and I also believe, 
that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this 
political building no better than the building of Babel. ' ' 

When the great Compact of Concessions and 
Compromises was finished it probably suited no 
member exactly, so much had each been obliged 
to yield of his own cherished opinions in the cause 
of harmony. But Franklin threw the whole 
weight of his influence in favor of an uncondi- 
tional signature of the great instrument by all the 
delegates. 

" I consent, Sir, to this Constitution," he said, " be- 
cause I expect no better, and because I am not sure that 
it is not the best. The opinions I have had of its errors 
I sacrifice to the public good. I have never whispered 
a syllable of them abroad. Within these walls they were 
born and here they shall die." 

92 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

He carried his point and all the members signed. 

It can hardly be doubted that it was the com- 
bined personal weight and influence of "Washing- 
ton and Franklin that prevailed with the people 
in all the thirteen States in favor of the adoption 
of the famous Constitution, which they had done 
so much to devise and perfect. 

He lived to see Washington, who had been his 
close friend and fellow laborer since the days of 
the Braddock disaster, elected unanimously the 
first President of the United States, and to see 
the new Nation, which he had been so potent to 
create, fairly launched upon its great career. He 
lived long enough to see the youthful Hamilton at 
the age of thirty-two installed as Secretary of the 
Treasury, and to read the first report of that mar- 
vellous genius on the Public Credit of the newborn 
Nation. His last public act only twenty-four 
days before his death, was a powerful appeal for 
the abolition of slavery, full of his old wisdom, 
wit, and satire, and of the spirit which animated 
the sublime proclamation of Lincoln three quar- 
ters of a century later. And then at last, utterly 
worn out by his long years of public service, but 
rejoicing in their grand result, he " wrapped the 
drapery of his couch about him and lay down to 
pleasant dreams." 

His grateful country honors his memory and 
cherishes his evergrowing fame as one of its 
noblest treasures, and transmits from generation 
to generation the story of his matchless services. 
His autobiography, written near the end of his 

93 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

wonderful career, is valued by all readers of the 
English language as one of the most fascinating 
contributions to its literature. And the lessons 
of honesty, temperance, thrift, industry, and 
economy, which he inculcated and practised with 
such brilliant success in his own person, have been 
of priceless value to his countrymen, and con- 
tributed very largely to their social, material, and 
intellectual well-being. So that, taking him for all 
in all, by general consent they class him with 
Washington and Hamilton and Lincoln in the list 
of illustrious Americans. 



94 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

Inaugural address March 19th, 1904, before the Associated Societies 
of the University of Edinburgh.. 

REVOLUTIONARY periods produce, if they 
do not create, men of genius whom the ex- 
igencies of the times demand. Whether they are 
bred out of the conditions which create the Revo- 
lution, or always exist in every community, wait- 
ing for the supreme summons to call them forth, 
seems little to the purpose to inquire. The ap- 
pointed hour strikes and the man appears. 

Napoleon, the most consummate individual 
force in modern history, evolved out of years of 
terror and anarchy to rescue a great nation from 
chaos, will occur to every one as the most striking 
example. Lincoln, of happier destiny, rising 
above the bloody carnage of civil war to save his 
divided Country, by striking the shackles from 
four millions of slaves, and so converting the 
doubtful war for Empire into a sublime and tri- 
umphant contest for Freedom, seems to have 
been providentially created for that awful crisis. 
Going back to the very beginning of our young 
Republic when, after all hope of conciliation with 
the Mother Country was abandoned, the Con- 
tinental Congress appointed Washington as the 
Commander-in-Chief of the American Army, to 

97 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

withstand the overwhehning power of the mighti- 
est of nations, and by his matchless patience, skill, 
and valor, to achieve the Independence of the 
Colonies, they appear to have found and selected 
the one man in all 'history best qualified for that 
most critical task. 

In the subsequent making of the new nation, 
which the success of Washington and his com- 
panions-in-arms at last rendered possible, there 
appeared a considerable body of statesmen, 
trained in political discussion, tried by seven 
years of war, aroused by the four years of an- 
archy that succeeded, whose combined wisdom 
and foresight framed the Constitution of the 
United States, and set in motion the Government 
which it called into being, in a way that to-day 
challenges the admiration and approval of all 
thinking men. Foremost among these in intellec- 
tual brilliancy, individual force, constructive 
capacity, and personal influence was Alexander 
Hamilton, to whose character and achievements 
I would briefly invite your attention. 

Just a hundred years ago, in the full career 
and triumph of vigorous middle life, he was wan- 
tonly slain in a duel that was forced upon him, 
and which he accepted in the spirit of false chiv- 
alry that then prevailed; but the work of his 
hands and his brain has all the time been growing 
and his fame has steadily advanced, until to-day 
he stands, as I think, next to Washington and 
Franklin among the celebrated Founders of the 
American Republic. At last even fiction has been 

98 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

busy with his name, as if by a sort of mystical 
birth a miraculous genius had been created to be 
a conqueror among the men of his time. But 
truth is stranger than fiction, and the plain facts 
of his life constitute a romance almost as thrill- 
ing and fascinating as the pen of the novelist has 
ever painted. 

I shall not attempt a biography of this extraor- 
dinary man — only a brief series of biographs, 
rapidly shifting, within the limits of the pre- 
scribed hour. Nor shall I try to solve the myste- 
rious problem of his birth and pedigree. We 
know that he was born in the little West India 
island of Nevis, and that his father was a Scotch 
merchant who soon fell into bankruptcy, and had 
little part in his training. His mother was a 
brilliant Creole lady of Huguenot descent, noted 
for her beauty and wit, who died in his early 
childhood. Whatever their own misfortunes, 
their union was blest by the birth of this son, 
whose nature combined the national characteris- 
tics of both most felicitously blended — a keen 
and powerful intellect, of marvellous precocity, 
a tropical and fiery energy which sustained a 
soaring ambition, and an endless and untiring 
capacity for labor. 

His early training and education were most 
accidental and desultory, and at the age of twelve 
he found himself working for his daily bread as 
clerk in a local counting house. But his talents 
were not to be thus hidden under a bushel. They 
were discovered and known to a few friends of 

99 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

his family, who provided the means for sending 
him to New York to be educated in a way worthy 
of his high promise — and so he was rescued from 
the threatened doom of obscurity in a remote 
corner of the world, and transferred to what was 
soon to be the theatre of great events, a fit arena 
for the exercise of his marvellous faculties. 

At King's College, known to-day as Columbia 
University, he more than made up for all past 
deficiencies by intense application and prodigious 
labor, and, at the same time, he studied the 
course of passing events, quite as ardently as the 
prescribed curriculum. It was a day of stirring 
action; the prelude of a historic political drama. 
The quarrel between the American Colonies and 
the Mother Country was reaching its crisis. The 
destruction of the taxed tea in Boston Harbor 
had been quickly followed by the Act of Parlia- 
ment closing the Port of Boston, and the other 
punitive measures designed to bring to terms 
the rebellious State of Massachusetts. These 
measures had the directly contrary effect, to 
rouse and unite all the Colonies in a determined 
rally to the defence of their distressed brethren 
in Boston. New York alone held back; her as- 
sembly controlled by the Tories and by the home 
Government, declined to send delegates to the first 
Continental Congress, and the patriots, as we now 
justly call them, convened a great meeting in the 
fields near the City to give voice to the popular 
sentiments. It was the first opportunity for 
Hamilton, a stripling in the middle of his eight- 

100 



ALEXANDEE HAMILTON 

eenth year, and lie seized it with startling avidity. 
A handsome youth of comely figure and of clas- 
sical countenance, intensely absorbed in the ques- 
tion of the hour, he listened in the crowd with 
breathless attention, and as the meeting drew 
towards its close, leaving untouched the thoughts 
that were burning within him for utterance, he 
mounted the platform amid the inquiring glances 
of its occupants, who wondered who this bold 
young stranger might be. He proceeded at first 
with faltering voice, but with ever growing cour- 
age and ardor to address the excited audience, 
who soon recognized him with shouts as " the 
Collegian ! the Collegian! " and listened with 
constantly increasing attention and delight to his 
bold and eloquent exposition of the rights and 
grievances of the Colonies, of which he had made 
a special study. When that meeting adjourned, 
the young West Indian, utterly obscure and un- 
known before, was head and shoulders above his 
fellows, already famous, and marked as a future 
leader of the Colonial Cause. 

From this time he lost no opportunity to hold 
and increase the advantage he had gained, and 
to impress himself upon the anxious and inter- 
ested community. In the following year he wrote 
and published anonymously two political tracts: 
** A full Vindication of the Congress " and '' The 
Farmer Refuted," dealing with the great ques- 
tions of the day, and in reply to a distinguished 
Tory pamphleteer, to whom he administered tell- 
ing blows and a signal defeat. His style was so 

101 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

clear and forcible, his grasp of the principles in- 
volved so comprehensive, and his modes of 
thought so mature, that the pamphlets were at- 
tributed to various members of the Colonial 
party, most eminent for wisdom, experience and 
commanding authority. When it came out that 
they were really the work of young Hamilton who 
had so recently made the famous speech at the 
meeting in the fields, the impression of that first 
l^erformance was greatly strengthened, and men's 
minds turned to him as a leader already. These 
papers showed much knowledge of history and 
of the true principles of Colonial Government, 
and are worth reading to-day by the students of 
political science. 

The actual outbreak of hostilities in 1775 found 
him already a devoted student of the military art, 
and the Captain of an Artillery Company, which 
he drilled with such success as soon to attract the 
attention of leading generals to his capacity in 
this new direction. Before long he came within 
the observation of Washington himself, who made 
him one of his own Aides-de-Camp, his Private 
Secretary, and a member of his military family, 
and so for the four years from March, 1777, to 
February, 1781, which covered a very decisive 
period of our great struggle, he was in daily and 
hourly contact with Washington as the most 
trusted member of his staff. 

I know of nothing more ennobling, more in- 
spiring, more precious for an ambitious and as- 
piring youth, in the formative and still plastic 

102 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

period of life from twenty to twenty-four, than 
such constant and intimate personal association 
with a truly great man ; and when the young man 
was the ablest of his time, and his master the 
greatest man of the age, perhaps of many ages, 
the conjunction was supremely fortunate, and 
here Hamilton acquired a training, discipline, 
and education, such as no University could ever 
give. He was in close touch with every important 
event of the period. He enjoyed the entire con- 
fidence and shared in large measure the designs, 
anxieties, and hopes of his great master, and 
especially his broad, comprehensive, and far-see- 
ing view of the future of the Colonies in the 
event of success. 

We may not linger on his military record, which 
was highly creditable. One incident of it cannot 
be omitted. He was on the spot at the time of 
Arnold's treasonable attempt to surrender West 
Point, and took part in the hopeless pursuit. He 
was brought into close contact with that accom- 
plished soldier John Andre, the unfortunate vic- 
tim of Arnold's perfidy, and exhibited the most 
touching and tender sympathy with his unhappy 
fate, laboring in vain to the last moment to miti- 
gate the dread severity of his sentence. At the 
time of his death Hamilton wrote of him: 
" Among the extraordinary circumstances that 
attended him, in the midst of his enemies, he died 
universally esteemed and universally regretted," 
a sentiment echoed by many of Hamilton's coun- 
trymen to-day at the sight of his tomb in West- 

103 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

minster Abbey, where lie sleeps among brave and 
great Englishmen. His latest biographer well 
says : ' ' A sadder tragedy was never enacted, but 
it was inevitable, and no reproach rests upon any 
person concerned except Arnold." Andre dis- 
played the truly chivalric spirit of self-sacrifice 
in the message .that he sent in his last hours 
through Hamilton, that even in the presence of 
death, he could not bear the thought, that his be- 
loved Commander-in-Chief, Sir Henry Clinton, 
to whom he was bound by every obligation and 
tie of affection, should reproach himself, or that 
others should reproach him on the supposition of 
his having conceived himself obliged by Clinton's 
instructions to run the fatal risk he did. 

Hamilton's close connection with Washington 
came to an abrupt and untimely end. Like his 
great chief he was a man of towering passion, 
generally held under strict control, but on one 
unhappy occasion the sorely tried commander ad- 
ministered a sharp reproof for some real or sup- 
posed delinquency, which the inflammable temper 
of the subordinate resented, and on the spot he 
resigned his appointment, declining the courteous 
overtures of Washington to re-enter his personal 
service. But he continued in the army and served 
with distinction to the end of the war, conducting 
with great gallantry and success one of the prin- 
cipal assaults at Yorktown, which won him con- 
spicuous honor. Nothing shows more grandly 
the superior magnanimity of Washington than his 
treatment of Hamilton after the ill-judged con- 

104 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

duct of the latter at the time of their quarrel. 
He had thoroughly studied the masterly character 
and great qualities of the young man, who was 
less than half his own age at the time, and had 
learned to rely upon him with absolute trust, 
which he continued ever afterwards to do, look- 
ing always to him more than to any other for 
political counsel and support, in all the great 
duties and responsibilities which were heaped 
upon him. 

And now the war which had lasted for seven 
years was over. The Independence of the United 
States was achieved. But never was a great 
nation, with boundless resources and possibilities 
of wealth and power, in such a hopeless and help- 
less condition — and all for the want of a strong 
and stable Government, fit to command obedience 
at home and confidence and respect abroad. The 
loose-jointed and inefficient Confederation of the 
States, which had held together under the pres- 
sure of war, and had managed to conduct it to 
a triumphant issue, was found when peace re- 
turned to be little better than no Government at 
all. It was represented by a Congress of dele- 
gates without definite powers, without an Execu- 
tive, without a Judiciary, and without authority 
to collect a dollar of taxes or raise a single sol- 
dier. It could only make requests of the States, 
each one of which might at its pleasure or con- 
venience disregard the- demands of their common 
agent. 

For the five years that preceded the adoption 

105 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

of the Federal Constitution the whole country was 
drifting surely and swiftly towards anarchy. The 
thirteen States freed from foreign dominion 
claimed, and began to exercise, each an inde- 
pendent Sovereignty, levying duties against each 
other and in many ways interfering with each 
other's trade. European nations finding that 
Congress had no power to protect American 
trade, proceeded to impose fatal restrictions upon 
it. They also refused to enter into treaties with 
the United States because they could not tell 
whether they were dealing with thirteen nations 
or with one. This only was sure, that Congress 
could carry no treaty into effect. Commerce was 
completely paralyzed. Paper money had done its 
worst and most perfect work by driving specie 
out of the country, and then had itself become 
worthless. The people, impoverished by long 
years of war, were subjected to cruel sufferings, 
and were taking the law into their own hands, 
closing the courts by mob violence, and at times 
defying all constituted authority. American 
ships were being burned by Barbary pirates, and 
their crews sold into slavery, for the want of a 
Government that commanded respect on the high 
seas. 

" It is clear to me as A, B, C,*' said Washing- 
ton, who, from his retirement at Mount Vernon, 
watched the course of affairs with the utmost 
anxiety, ** that an extension of Federal Powers 
would make us one of the most happy, wealthy, 
respectable, and powerful nations that ever in- 

106 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

habited the terrestrial globe. Without them we 
shall soon be everything that is the direct reverse. 
I predict the worst consequences from a half- 
starved, limping Government, always moving 
upon crutches and tottering at every step." And 
as yet the States and State Governments, jealous 
of each other and of any central authority, hesi- 
tated and refused to confer any adequate power 
upon Congress, which remained without the 
means of paying even the interest on the loans 
due to its generous allies, and bankruptcy, public 
and private, threatened to fall like a blight on the 
whole land. The national resources were ample, 
but there was no power to call them into action, 
and American credit was dead. 

Meanwhile Hamilton had married the daughter 
of General Schuyler, of New York, and had vastly 
bettered his position by this alliance with one of 
the oldest and most distinguished families of the 
country. He had studied law, and had been called 
to the Bar, always in America the recognized 
nursery of Statesmen. With his known abilities, 
and aided by the personal distinction he had al- 
ready acquired, he was making rapid advance- 
ment in his chosen profession and in civil life, 
where his courage was as conspicuous as it had 
been in the field. A signal instance of this oc- 
curred in his early professional career. The leg- 
islature had passed some severe laws against 
those who had remained loyal to the British 
Crown, among others a law, giving a right of 
action to those whose property, abandoned by its 

107 



AI.EXANDER HAMILTON 

owners, had been in the occupation of loyalists 
during the war, under the authority of the British 
Commander. A great part of the city of New York 
had been so occupied for many years. Under this 
statute suit was brought by a widow, who had been 
ruined by the war, against a rich merchant who 
had occupied her house during British domina- 
tion, and Hamilton, amidst the most tumultuoue 
clamor for the widow's cause, took a brief for 
the defence, and threw himself into it with all 
the ardor and ability at his command. He placed 
his case on the broad ground of public law and 
the faith of Treaties, and fairly persuaded the 
conscience of the Court, against the tremendous 
weight of popular pressure, to set the Act aside. 
In spite of the temporary odium which this manly 
act brought upon him, his forensic triumph placed 
him in the front rank of the profession — and 
there he remained to the end of his life. 

But no other interests could keep his active and 
patriotic mind from political thought, and from 
the day of his first association with Washington 
they had both been of but one opinion, that noth- 
ing but a powerful Federal Government, with all 
the sanction of National Sovereignty, could save 
the afflicted people from the fearful dangers that 
menaced them. He lost no chance by voice, pen 
or personal influence to inculcate this fundamental 
truth, and many a fierce battle he fought in de- 
fence of it. 

At last his great opportunity came, in 1786, 
when Virginia called a Conference of her sister 

108 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

States to meet at Annapolis to consider the com- 
mercial situation. Only five of the thirteen States 
responded, but Hamilton with a single colleague 
was there from New York, and, although the im- 
mediate object of the Conference failed, the real 
business done by this little band of delegates was 
to issue an address written by Hamilton, and sent 
to all the States, strongly setting forth the exist- 
ing mischiefs and the only remedy. It urged that 
Commissioners be appointed by all the States to 
meet in Convention at Philadelphia in May, 1787, 
'* to devise such further provisions as shall ap- 
pear to them necessary, to render the Constitution 
of the Federal Government adequate to the exi- 
gencies of the Union." 

Thus this young and untried Statesman, in his 
thirtieth year, was foremost in the propitious 
movement for assembling that remarkable body 
of men, who met at Philadelphia to rescue their 
country from the terrible and almost hopeless 
evils by which it was encompassed, and who ac- 
complished this great result by framing and 
adopting the Constitution of the United States. 
It has been well described as '' one of the most 
memorable assemblies the world has ever seen," 
and of its work Mr. Gladstone, a not too friendly 
critic, has said that '* as the British Constitution 
is the most subtle organism which has proceeded 
from progressive history, so the American Con- 
stitution is the most wonderful work ever struck 
off at a given time by the brain and purpose of 
man." 

109 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

The States responded to the call with varying 
degrees of alacrity. Virginia led the way by ap- 
pointing delegates with "Washington at their head, 
which in itself went far to secure the success of 
the movement. After a severe struggle, which 
was carried in favor of the Convention by his 
own overwhelming energy and persuasive power, 
Hamilton was returned by the reluctant State of 
New York. But he was handicapped by two col- 
leagues who were hostile to the whole purpose of 
the Convention, and as the vote there was by 
States, each State casting a single vote by the 
majority of its delegates, his voting power was 
nullified. 

Although Hamilton's work in the Convention 
was limited, it was of a most interesting and im- 
portant character. He formulated and proposed 
a scheme of Government, which in many details 
was followed in the plan actually adopted, but 
which in two important features differed radi- 
cally from that. 

He proposed a scheme much more closely assim- 
ilated to the British Constitution, which he de- 
clared to be the best model then in existence. In 
the place of a Constitutional Monarchy he would 
have had a republic indeed, but an aristocratic 
republic based upon the property of the country, 
and would have made it supreme over the States 
to the extent of a practical extinction of their 
Sovereignty. The course of events since the close 
of the war had given him a great distrust of pure 
democracy, and a settled conviction that a contin- 

110 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

uanee of the independent Sovereignty of the 
States, to whose jealousy he attributed a large 
share of the impending disasters, would be incon- 
sistent with the creation of a strong central Gov- 
ernment adequate to maintain the dignity and 
safety of the nation. 

To this end he proposed that the Congress 
should have power to pass any laws it thought 
necessary fo-r the general welfare, that the Presi- 
dent, who was to have an absolute veto, and the 
members of the Senate, should be elected by the 
votes of property owners only, and should hold 
their offices for life or during good behavior, 
being removable only by conviction upon an im- 
peachment for some crime or misdemeanor, and 
that the governor of each State should be ap- 
pointed under the authority of the United States, 
and have a veto upon all laws passed by the State. 

This novel scheme he supported in a powerful 
address. With all his logic and eloquence, how- 
ever, he won no support for the special features 
of his plan. Probably he did not expect to do so, 
but undoubtedly his earnest appeal did much to 
confirm his associates in the determination to 
develope a strong and stable Executive and a 
Federal Government which, in all affairs that con- 
cerned the common welfare, should be actually 
independent of the State Governments. His 
scheme would, however, have annihilated the 
Sovereignty of the States, the preservation of 
which within its proper limits was an object very 
precious in the sight of the Convention. The 

111 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

moral effect upon his associates of his appeal for 
a strong and self-sufficient government was un- 
doubtedly great. Indeed, Guizot says of him that, 
*' there is not in the Constitution of the United 
States an element of order, of force, of duration, 
which he did not powerfully contribute to intro- 
duce into it, and to cause to predominate." And 
the Cambridge History of the United States, the 
latest authority, truly says, '' Every great under- 
taking has its master-spirit, the Master-Spirit of 
the Convention that framed the Constitution and 
of all that led to it was Alexander Hamilton. 
There were other strong leaders who played a 
greater part in the long series of debates, but 
Hamilton, present or absent, was chief among 
them. Hamilton had already thought out the idea 
of a Constitution, clear, definite, and strong to 
withstand domestic feuds and foreign greed. He 
had thought out, and he laid before the Conven- 
tion, a form of instrument which he considered 
better than any likely to be adopted; but if he 
knew that the mark was too high, it was still to 
be the mark. A Nation was to be created and 
established, created of jarring Commonwealths, 
and established on the highest level of right." 

The Constitution as it was adopted by the Con- 
vention, has safely stood the test of a century, 
and was the happy result of four months ' hot dis- 
cussions behind closed doors, and of successive 
great compromises between sections, States and 
individuals. Hamilton, in his enthusiasm for a 
powerful centralized Government which should 

112 



ALEXANDEE HAMILTON 

dominate the States, had pronounced the Execu- 
tive too weak, and had declared that two sover- 
eignties could not possibly co-exist within the 
same limits; but the combined wisdom of the 
whole body proved greater than that of any one 
member. The Executive created by the Constitu- 
tion has proved to be strong enough for every 
emergency, and exercises in times of foreign war 
or civil strife an actual power quite as great and 
efficient as that of Kings or Emperors in monar- 
chical states. A dual sovereignty was success- 
fully established, by means of which the Federal 
Government within its sphere is supreme and 
absolute in all Federal matters, and for those 
purposes able to reach by its own arm without 
aid or interference from the States every man, 
every dollar, and every foot of soil within the 
wide domains of the Republic, leaving each State 
still supreme, still vested with complete and per- 
fect dominion over all matters domestic within its 
boundaries. Harmony between the two indepen- 
dent sovereignties is absolutely secured by the 
judicial power vested in the United States Su- 
preme Court, to keep each within its proper orbit 
by declaring void, in cases properly brought be- 
fore it, all State Laws which invade the federal 
jurisdiction, and all Acts of Congress which tres- 
pass upon the Constitutional rights of the States. 
But Hamilton, like Washington and Franklin, 
and all the other great patriots of the Convention, 
subordinated his own views to the united judg- 
ment of his colleagues, and accepted the result as 

113 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

the best that could possibly be got. Although as 
he said, '* No man's views were more remote 
from the plan than his own were known to be, 
yet it was not possible to deliberate between 
anarchy and convulsion on one side, and the 
chance of good to be expected from the plan on 
the other." Franklin urged the same thing with 
equal earnestness, and with success. So that when 
the doors were opened, and the members reap- 
peared with the instrument which was the result 
of their long labors, signed by all, it appeared 
as their unanimous act, supported by the com- 
bined influence and character of all, while all the 
heated and angry discussions and differences out 
of which it had grown were left behind and not 
disclosed for half-a-century afterwards, all the 
members having been sworn to secrecy as to what 
took place within the walls of Independence Hall. 
It was one thing, however, for the Convention 
to frame and recommend the Constitution, and 
quite another to secure its adoption by the people 
of the several States, which were called upon to 
surrender so much of their power to the Federal 
Government for the general welfare of all, for it 
was to be the Act of the people of the whole 
United States. Its preamble, which is said to 
have been written by Hamilton and is the best 
statement of the objects of free government to 
be found in any language, declares " We, the 
people of the United States, in order to form a 
more perfect Union, establish justice, insure 
domestic tranquillity, provide for the common 

114 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

defence, promote the general welfare, and secure 
the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our pos- 
terity, do ordain and establish this Constitution 
for the United States of America." 

It was in this business of con\'incing and con- 
verting a reluctant people to the acceptance and 
support of the new plan of Government, that 
Hamilton performed those prodigious services, 
and displayed that surpassing genius, which es- 
tablished his fame as the greatest Constitutional 
Lawyer and Statesman of that eventful era, and 
commanded the everlasting gratitude of his coun- 
try and of mankind. For to him, more than to 
any other one man, we owe the grand result of 
the adoption of the Constitution, which brought 
our young Republic into being with organized 
powers and internal resources, that have enabled 
her to take the place which she now occupies in 
the family of nations. The immense weight of 
character of Washington and Franklin inclined 
public opinion to the support of the measure 
which they had helped to frame, but the voice and 
pen of Hamilton carried home to the hearts and 
consciences of the people the conviction that the 
adoption of the new Constitution was necessary to 
their welfare. 

When the plan of Government proposed by the 
Convention was announced, the general sentiment 
of the people was against it, and a hostile majority 
in many of the States was outspoken. It encoun- 
tered the fixed prejudice in favor of State Sover- 
eignty and against any external government, as it 

115 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

was called, which in the case of British dominion 
had proved so unpopular and disastrous. Men's 
passions as well as their interests were appealed 
to, and a bitter and violent anti-federalist party 
was organized in every State, pledged to defeat 
the Constitution by all honorable means if pos- 
sible. New York, though only the fourth or fifth 
State in wealth and population, was by its posi- 
tion, which completely separated New England 
from the Southern States, absolutely indispen- 
sable to the new Union, and her people, led by a 
Governor ^' with consummate talents for popu- 
larity," were more emphatically opposed to it 
than those of any other State. 

But the choline was between the new Constitu- 
tion and anarchy, and Hamilton conceived the idea 
of a regularly organized campaign of education, 
to open the minds and to instruct the consciences 
of the people on the great question which involved 
their rights and liberties as well as their interests. 
This should be done by a consecutive and inces- 
sant series of papers addressed to the people, 
presenting the general constitutional principles 
involved, discussing and analyzing the new Con- 
stitution, chapter by chapter, clause by clause, 
and pointing out, as to each, the defects of the 
existing confederation, the consequent evils and 
mischiefs under which they were laboring, and 
the remedies offered by the work of the Conven- 
tion. 

He enlisted the willing and sympathetic aid of 
Madison, who had had much more to do than him- 

116 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

self with the framing of the plan proposed, and 
of Jay, the acknowledged leader among American 
jurists, who afterwards became the first Chief 
Justice of the United States. They contributed 
many of the papers, and their reputation, charac- 
ter, and experience gave great authority to the 
work, but a major portion of it was indisputably 
from Hamilton's own pen. The combined result 
is known as ' ' The Federalist, ' ' the book which is 
thought by many competent authorities to be the 
greatest book that America has given to the 
world, and which certainly ranks very high among 
works on constitutional law and principles the 
world over. It remains to this day the highest 
authority in the Courts of the United States, and 
of other countries, on the construction and mean- 
ing of the Constitution, and the intentions of its 
framers, and should be read by every student who 
wishes to understand the principles which lie at 
the foundation of popular government. 

Hamilton wrote the first paper by the light of 
a candle, while floating down from Albany to New 
York in the cabin of the primitive passenger 
schooner of those days, and the other numbers 
followed in quick succession, one in every two or 
three days. They covered the whole field of con- 
stitutional and public law, and the meaning and 
purpose of every clause was made clear to the 
people. The writers spoke from full minds and 
full hearts. The papers were widely circulated 
and universally read, and are pronounced by com- 
petent historians to have had more to do than 

117 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

any other cause with convincing the people 
throughout the country that their safety and wel- 
fare depended upon the adoption of the new form 
of Government proposed. For clear and cogent 
reasoning, plainness and simplicity of thought, 
earnestness of purpose, and purity of diction and 
literary style, I know of no American book that 
surpasses " The Federalist," and no student of 
constitutional or public law can do without it. 
The chief credit of the work, for its origin, its 
successful prosecution and its great merit may, 
without any detraction from the valuable contri- 
bution of his associates, be awarded to Hamilton. 

The Edinburgh Revieiv, No. 24, says: — " The 
Federalist, written principally by Hamilton, ex- 
hibits an extent and precision of information, a 
profundity of research, and an accurateness of 
understanding, which would have done honor to 
the most illustrious statesmen of ancient or mod- 
ern times." 

But New York, his own State, still hung back, 
and New York was still the pivot on which the 
whole of this political enterprise turned, and there 
the chances seemed desperate indeed. The Oppo- 
sition Party supported by the most formidable 
interests were in a large majority, and determined 
to defeat it at all hazards. They preferred that 
New York should stand alone, and enjoy, to the 
exclusion of its sister States, the immense advan- 
tages of its splendid harbor and its prospective 
commerce. Hamilton and Jay and their associ- 
ates succeeded in forcing the calling of a Conven- 

118 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

tion to consider the matter. But when it met 
forty-six out of the sixty-five members present 
were pronounced anti-federalists, with the stal- 
wart and hard-headed Governor at their head, and 
in the chair. Hamilton, leading the forlornly 
hopeless minority of nineteen, had an opportunity 
to show his points as a debater, and after a pro- 
tracted struggle he won a parliamentary victory 
such as has rarely been heard of in the annals of 
any legislative body. Day after day and week 
after week, he maintained the contest almost sin- 
gle handed. He was superbly equipped for such 
a hand-to-hand fight. His experience with Wash- 
ington, and subsequently in Congress, in the two 
Conventions, in the legislature and at the Bar, his 
strong and penetrating intellect, his fiery energy 
and absolute conviction, made him an irresistible 
champion at close quarters. Clearness, force, and 
earnestness were the characteristics of his elo- 
quence; he had an answer for every objection, 
and made every blow tell. And at last he carried 
the enemy's works by assault, just as he had 
stormed the battery at Yorktown. 

The leader of the Governor's party ran up the 
white flag, and announced on the floor of the 
House that Hamilton's arguments had convinced 
him, and the victory was won — the Convention 
ratifying the Constitution by a vote of 30 to 27. 
Thus New York was the eleventh State to ratify, 
nine only being required. By this time the whole 
country was convinced, for nothing succeeds like 
success. Rejoicing was universal, and Hamilton's 

119 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

name was on every tongue. In the great proces- 
sion in New York to celebrate the glad event, the 
great Ship of State, the emblematic Federal Ship, 
which was drawn through the streets, was em- 
blazoned all over with the name of '' Hamilton " 
in his honor. This universal recognition of his 
service and triumph must have made him the 
happiest and proudest man in America, and he 
was still but thirty years old. 

Great as was the service rendered by Hamilton 
in securing the adoption of the Constitution, it 
was, however, equalled in importance by the part 
which he took in organizing the new Government 
under it, in restoring the public credit, and in 
devising the policy which was to shape the future 
fortunes of the infant nation, and here he devel- 
oped a versatility of talent, and a constructive 
capacity, almost without a precedent. 

The first Presidential election had resulted in 
the unanimous election of Washington, " first in 
war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his 
countrymen." No greater responsibility ever 
rested upon any ruler than that of organizing the 
machinery of the new administration, so as to 
secure success to the novel experiment of free 
government. Of all the famous statesmen in the 
land, whom should he choose as his most confiden- 
tial adviser and chief assistant in this arduous 
work? Whom but the still youthful Hamilton, 
who, at the age of thirty- two, was made the first 
Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, 
with the approval of the whole country, for his 

120 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

thorough fitness in character, capacity, power of 
sustained labor and generous enthusiasm were 
universally recognized. The appointment was 
more than justified, for he still stands by far our 
greatest Finance Minister, with whom we may 
safely challenge any comparison. It was not mere 
language of rhetoric, but literal truth when Web- 
ster, borrowing the imagery of two famous mira- 
cles, said of him, '^ He smote the rock of our 
national resources and abundant streams of rev- 
enue gushed forth. He touched the dead corpse 
of public credit and it sprang upon its feet." 

The labors of Hercules were light in compari- 
son with those that fell upon the new Secretary. 
He came to an empty Treasury, with literally not 
a penny in the till. There was no credit, public 
or private. There were as yet no laws providing 
for the exercise of the powers conferred by the 
Constitution. There had been no attempt as yet 
to develope the resources of the country, which 
have since proved to be so inexhaustible — busi- 
ness was at a standstill waiting upon events. 
Above all, and casting a heavy cloud, a fearful 
incubus upon the hopes and prospects of the new 
Government just struggling into life, there was 
a vast national debt of eighty million dollars — 
an insignificant sum to our modern view, but then 
of appalling dimensions, and there were no means 
at hand with which to pay the principal or even 
the interest upon it. 

After organizing the necessary financial ma- 
chinery of the Treasury, in a way that has lasted 

121 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

to the present time, he produced in rapid succes- 
sion his three able reports on Public Credit, on 
National Banking and on Manufactures, and 
thereby laid the deep and solid foundations, upon 
which the public credit, the financial system, and 
the public and private prosperity of the United 
States were built up. They contained the germs 
from which have been developed our distinctive 
American method of government, which still bears 
the stamp of Hamilton's strong intellect and per- 
sonality. 

He based his scheme of public credit upon abso- 
lute good faith, upon a punctual performance of 
every obligation, on which alone he insisted the 
prosperity of the Nation could safely rest. 
'^ States, like individuals," he said, " who re- 
spect their engagements are respected and trusted, 
while the reverse is true of those who pursue an 
opposite conduct." And he stated the object of 
his policy to be: ''To justify and preserve the 
confidence of the most enlightened friends of good 
government; to promote the increasing respect- 
ability of the American name ; to answer the calls 
of justice; to restore landed property to its due 
value; to furnish new resources both to agricul- 
ture and commerce; to cement more closely the 
Union of the States; to add to their security 
against foreign attack; to establish public order 
on the basis of an upright and liberal policy." 

For these sacred purposes he insisted upon 
sufficient revenue by taxation to provide for the 
prompt payment of all public obligations, and to 

122 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

furnish an adequate currency — upon a Funding 
System which should embrace the whole of the 
existing debt, recognized as to be paid in full how- 
ever depreciated, to the lawful holders — and 
upon the assumption by the Nation, of all the 
debts that had been incurred by the States in 
carrying on the war which brought the Nation 
into being. 

These important measures were not carried 
without violent and formidable opposition, and 
required the exertion by Hamilton of all his power 
and influence, both as Minister and politician. 
The public debt, which was large, and had been 
accumulating from the beginning of the War of 
the Revolution, was of three classes. First, that 
which was due to Foreign Nations — to France, 
Spain, and Holland, for loans and advances. 
This it was generally agreed must be paid in full, 
principal and interest. Second, that which was 
due to domestic creditors, represented by bills or 
obligations issued from time to time, and which 
had greatly depreciated, as the paper money had 
done. So that the first taker, who had received 
it from the Government at its face value, had 
parted with it at a discount, and the last taker, 
who was the present holder, had paid but a small 
percentage of its par value. As to these there 
was a violent controversy, the opponents of Ham- 
ilton's plan insisting that the present holder 
should be paid only what he gave for it, and any 
further payments go to the previous holders. 
But Hamilton stoutly and successfully insisted 

123 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

that as the agreement of the Government in each 
case had been to pay the whole amount to the 
first taker or his assignees, the credit of the Na- 
tion required that this agreement should be kept 
in the strictest good faith and the actual holder 
receive the whole. 

On the question of the assumption by the new 
Nation of the outstanding debts of the States 
there was a still more bitter controversy, which 
involved the jealousy existing between the 
States ; — but Hamilton, who believed that the 
stability of the new Government depended very 
much upon enlisting the capital and the capitalists 
of the country in its support, insisted successfully 
upon Assumption, and by this and the previous 
measure he rallied to the support of the Govern- 
ment those who, as he believed, could render it 
the most efficient aid and influence, and established 
its credit on a lasting foundation. Its new funded 
debt, into which these obligations were converted, 
rose to par and more, and was always met at 
maturity. 

In his report on Banking, which was a very 
great and powerful constitutional and legal argu- 
ment, he laid the foundations upon which have 
safely rested all the plans of National Banks that 
have from time to time been adopted by Congress, 
and our present excellent system of National 
Banks, so stable and uniform in its operation in 
all parts of the Union. Here, too, he rendered 
a still more broad and signal service, in first set- 
ting forth in clear and convincing terms the theory 

124 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

of implied powers and residting powers vested in 
the National Government under the Constitu- 
tion — the theory that every power clearly given 
involves necessarily the right in Congress to use 
every necessary and proper means to carry that 
power into execution. In other words, he was the 
author of the doctrine of liberal construction, 
which has enabled the Supreme Court from time 
to time to adopt and apply the general provisions 
of the Constitution, as its framers intended, to 
successive national exigencies as they arose, 
whereby that venerated instrument has grown 
with the growth of the nation, instead of being 
left behind and discarded as an outworn garment 
rent asunder at every seam. 

His report on Manufactures, the third of these 
great State papers, is still more remarkable. 
Taking the ground that Manufactures were as 
essential to the prosperity of the whole country 
as Commerce and Agriculture, and should there- 
fore be equally encouraged and developed, he 
presents the whole subject in a broad, compre- 
hensive and truly National spirit, setting forth 
both sides of the question as clearly and strongly 
as possible, and evincing a deep knowledge of the 
principles of political economy and of the science 
of taxation. This paper did not, like the others 
that have been referred to, result in immediate 
legislation, but it was in pursuance of his great 
National purpose that the United States should 
as rapidly as possible make themselves independ- 
ent of all foreign control or interference, and it 

125 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

is so full and perfect a presentation of the general 
subject, that it will always be worthy of careful 
study, from whatever side the question may be 
approached. It is safe to say that not much has 
been added to the argument on either side since 
this Report was published. 

These great subjects, important and fundamen- 
tal as they were, were not the only ones that 
engaged the attention of the youthful Secretary 
at the outset of the new Government. Congress, 
earnestly devoted to the study of the legislation 
necessary for calling into effective action the vast 
and varied powers conferred by the Constitution, 
was continually calling upon him for advice and 
reports, which he gave with wonderful ease and 
versatility, on a great variety of subjects, within 
and without his own department. He was also 
during the first five years of the Administration 
of Washington, the chief political adviser of the 
President, who relied upon him in every emer- 
gency, and whose arms he upheld, on every great 
question of public policy. 

The aim of Hamilton's efforts from first to 
last was to create a strong and independent Gov- 
ernment, in full possession of all the powers that 
by reasonable construction it could derive from 
the Constitution; to establish the credit of the 
Nation upon the impregnable basis of absolute 
good faith, to develope all its resources as rapidly 
as possible, and to hold fast to its support, 
through a strong spirit of Nationality, all the 
strongest men and most powerful interests in the 

126 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

land. By his untiring labors, and by the com- 
manding influence which he acquired and exer- 
cised to these noble ends, he stamped the impress 
of his character and personality upon the National 
history, and is entitled to a full share of that glory 
which mankind awards to the founders of great 
States. As the Republic which he helped so ef- 
ficiently to bring into being and to place upon its 
feet, expands and grows, his fame grows with it, 
and will last as long as the Nation endures. His 
name will be always identified with the strength, 
the splendor, and the purity of Washington's 
Administration. 

Senator Lodge, his biographer, has truly said 
of him: '* As time has gone on, Hamilton's fame 
has grown, and he stands to-day as the most 
brilliant statesman we have produced. His con- 
structive mind and far reaching intellect are vis- 
ible in every part of our system of government 
which is the best and noblest monument of his 
genius. ' ' 

It is quite impossible to form a just estimate 
of the value and efficiency of Hamilton's ideas and 
labors in promoting th« adoption of the Consti- 
tution, and in the legislation of Washington's 
Administration, without taking a general view of 
the condition of affairs at the close of that period, 
and contrasting it with that which existed, as we 
have seen, at its commencement. 

Instead of a powerless league of States, held 
together by Articles of Confederation which have 
been aptly described as " a rope of sand," a 

127 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

young, vigorous and ambitious Nation had been 
created, with a Government fully organized, 
armed and equipped for all national purposes, 
with the most illustrious man in the world at its 
head, whose character commanded universal re- 
spect, confidence and admiration, at home and 
abroad. In its hands had been placed full and 
adequate powers of taxation, by which every form 
of property, occupation, and industry could be 
reached, and compelled to contribute to all those 
purposes which involved the general welfare of 
the people of all the States ; to internal adminis- 
tration and the support of a judicial establish- 
ment; to foreign relations; to the building of a 
Navy; to the organizing and equipment of 
Armies; to the regulation of Commerce; and to 
carrying out the provisions of Treaties. The 
Nation could now, if need be, without aid from 
the States, draw into its military service every 
able-bodied man within the bounds of the Repub- 
lic. 

It left untouched all those powers of the 
States, which were essential to the proper conduct 
of domestic affairs, and at the same time effec- 
tually restrained them from the exercise of those 
which would interfere with the independence and 
efficiency of the general government. They could 
no longer levy imposts upon imports from abroad 
or from any of the other States. The citizens of 
each State were secured the enjoyment of all the 
privileges and immunities of citizens in every 
other State. Absolute freedom of trade within 

128 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

the Republic was established, which, in connection 
with the unlimited power to regulate Commerce 
with foreign nations and the absolute control of 
all external relations, has vastly contributed to 
the general prosperity of the Nation. The States 
were also prohibited from passing any laws im- 
pairing the obligation of contracts, a provision 
which gave great security and stability both to 
property and business. It put an end for ever 
to interference between creditor and debtor, of 
which some of the States had been guilty, and 
has done much to maintain the sanctity of con- 
tracts and of property. 

With such a Government the new born Nation 
could meet and confront other Nations on equal 
terms. It could make Treaties, with the assur- 
ance to itself and to the other party that the 
terms of the Treaty would be faithfully executed. 
It was no longer looked upon with contempt, or 
even with indifference, by other Powers as it had 
been before, but took its place as an equal in the 
family of Nations. 

The people gradually learned to outgrow the 
feeling of pupilage and dependence upon a foreign 
nation and on foreign opinion, which had charac- 
terized them as Colonists. In its place they ac- 
quired a new spirit of Nationality, proud of their 
new liberties and rejoicing in the strength of a 
Union, which, as they believed, was destined to 
be perpetual. Confidence and Commerce revived, 
and the busy hum of Industry was everywhere 
heard. An ample revenue flowed into the public 

129 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

coffers, and the public funds and the national 
currency were placed upon a firm basis. The 
great national domain extending from the Al- 
leghanies to the Mississippi was thrown open to 
immigration, and a resistless and incessant tide 
of life began to flow through every mountain pass 
and along every river bed, eager to possess and 
subdue the forest and the wilderness, and convert 
them into one great garden of plenty. 

I doubt whether in such narrow limits of time, 
a change in the form of Government and the 
adoption of a new system of Administration ever 
wrought such magical effects. A wholly new 
people entered upon the great and untried ex- 
periment of Self Government, with the most buoy- 
ant hopes and sanguine expectations. 

An opportunity soon came for testing the 
power of the new Government against domestic 
turbulence and disorder, and of trying the work- 
ing order of the new machinery in critical emer- 
gencies. The breaking out of the French Revolu- 
tion created, as might have been expected, a tre- 
mendous sensation and universal enthusiasm 
throughout the United States, in which doubtless 
"Washington and Hamilton at first sympathized, 
welcoming the hope of constitutional liberty aris- 
ing upon the ruins of despotism. But when the 
true nature and inevitable tendency of that awful 
conflict revealed itself; ''when," as Mr. Lodge 
finely says, '' reform became revolution, revolu- 
tion anarchy, and redress revenge — when hot- 
blooded killings in the streets changed to cold- 

130 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

blooded massacre and cowardly murder in the 
palace and the prison, culminating at last in the 
execution of the King and the daily slaughter of 
the guillotine — then public opinion in America 
shifted, ' ' and the conservative elements of society, 
headed by Washington and Hamilton, raised 
formidable and successful barriers against the 
tide of Jacobin sentiment, which even the Atlantic 
was not wide enough to keep out of the land. 

When the news arrived of the outbreak of war 
between England and France, the President, on 
a careful study of the situation, declared for ab- 
solute and strict neutrality between the contend- 
ing Powers, and determined that our previous 
relations of alliance and friendship with France 
should not entangle us in any way in the seething 
turmoil of French madness. He issued his famous 
proclamation of neutrality, treating both parties 
to the war on terms of strict and impartial equal- 
ity, which established for the future our uniform 
relation to all foreign wars. 

This proclamation of neutrality was, under the 
circumstances, a magnificent exhibition by Wash- 
ington of those great qualities of wisdom, firm- 
ness and integrity of mind for which he was so 
remarkable. The drift of popular feeling in 
America was strongly on the side of France. 
We were bound to her by ties of gratitude for 
the timely, efficient, and generous aid she had then 
so recently given us in the very crisis of our fate, 
and which had enabled us so soon to secure our 
independence. We were also bound by the terms 

131 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

of tlie defensive Treaty of Alliance, which Frank- 
lin had won so much fame by negotiating. On 
the other hand there still lingered in the hearts 
of the people much of that bitterness of feeling 
against England, which the recent contest had 
necessarily excited, and which new causes of dif- 
ference arising since the war had not permitted 
to subside. After patiently hearing all sides, 
Washington concluded that our National interests 
and National honor alike required us to abstain 
from all part in the war, and the Proclamation 
went forth in the most emphatic terms. 

When a representative of the Convention ar- 
rived as Minister from the French Republic, and 
endeavored by all sorts of intrigue and plot to 
embroil us — when Jacobin clubs were estab- 
lished, and a great party was formed in support 
of so-called French principles, Washington en- 
forced to the utmost of his ability the doctrine of 
the proclamation, counteracting and defeating all 
the dangerous efforts of this turbulent emissary 
and his American supporters, and finally insisted 
peremptorily upon his recall. The performances 
of this emissary of the French Revolutionary Gov- 
ernment, from the day he landed on our shores 
until his recall, were most remarkable. Landing 
at Charleston on the very day of the issue of the 
proclamation, he persistently defied its provisions. 
He issued commissions and fitted out privateers to 
prey upon British commerce, appointed consuls 
and instructed them to act as prize courts on our 
neutral territory, and made triumphal processions 

132 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

through the States. He made our soil the base of 
warlike operations, and did his best to drag us 
into the war, and, as a last act of temerity, he had 
the assurance to appeal from the President to the 
People, whom he had done his best to convert 
into French Propagandists. During this stirring 
period Hamilton, in the Cabinet and the press, 
rallied mightily to the support of his chief, and 
impressed himself and his ideas most indelibly, 
not only upon the great Federalist party, of which 
he was the acknowledged chief, but upon the 
future policy of the country for generations. 

Another occasion arose to test the firmness and 
efficiency of the new Government. When the 
growing necessities of the organized service called 
for enlarged taxation, and an increased excise 
was imposed by Congress upon distilled spirits, 
what was known as the " Wliiskey Rebellion " 
broke out in the mountains of Pennsylvania, in 
armed resistance to the process and officers of 
the United States — and a wide-spread indulgence 
in disorder and outrage. Great forces of armed 
men in open defiance of the law occupied broad 
tracts of country, and the practical question arose, 
whether we had a government capable of dealing 
with such a crisis or not. This was the first time 
that the new Government had had to resort to 
force against popular violence, and it was now to 
be determined whether it had the power and the 
nerve to enforce obedience to its own laws. 

Washington, firmly supported by his stalwart 
Secretary, who liked nothing better than a fight, 

133 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

soon called an army of fifteen thousand men into 
the field which marched under the general direc- 
tion of Hamilton, into the disturbed districts, put 
a speedy end to what threatened to be an obstinate 
revolution, and set an example of how the Federal 
Government could and should deal with insurrec- 
tion. All this was in striking contrast to what 
had happened in Massachusetts just before the 
Federal Convention met, when a debtors ' rebellion 
had taken possession of the State and closed all 
the Courts of Justice, and the Government of the 
Confederation had not been able to lift a finger 
to aid the State in its suppression. 

I shall not ask you to follow Hamilton through 
the ten years that remained to him after his re- 
tirement from public life, which was compelled by 
the necessity of providing for a large and grow- 
ing family. His ardent interest and inspiring in- 
fluence in public affairs never slackened. Although 
no longer in the Cabinet, he was frequently called 
upon by Washington for advice and assistance, 
and freely gave his opinion and counsel on impor- 
tant public questions. He was the acknowledged 
head of the historic Federal Party, to whose con- 
tinual conflicts, alike in victory and defeat, his 
fiery zeal and passionate nature lent always a 
glowing heat. Apart from these excursions into 
politics, his later years were spent in the enjoy- 
ment of a most felicitous domestic life, and in 
the honorable pursuit in a large way of the pro- 
fession which he loved and ennobled, and in which 
he was easily foremost. 

134 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

It is in that honorable calling which he always 
magnified and adorned, that I love to contemplate 
him, devoting the marvellous force of his char- 
acter, intellect, and will to the service of the com- 
munity, in those great forensic contests to which 
he was naturally called. Chancellor Kent, whose 
authority on that subject is conclusive, says of 
him : ' * Among his brethren Hamilton was indis- 
putably pre-eminent. This was universally con- 
ceded. He rose at once to the loftiest heights of 
professional eminence by his profound penetra- 
tion, his power of analysis, the comprehensive 
grasp and strength of his understanding, and the 
firmness, frankness and integrity of his charac- 
ter." The same qualities it will be noted made 
him so nearly supreme in political and public life. 

I would not have you believe that I am present- 
ing Hamilton as a hero without spot or blemish. 
He had many and glaring faults, but they were 
m Sstly the result of that passionate and impetu- 
ous nature which was a striking feature of his 
personality. An intrigue in private life, which 
his enemies seized upon as a means of defa- 
ming his public character, by the pretence that 
he had spent upon its object public moneys, 
compelled him to an elaborate vindication of his 
official conduct. He not only silenced but con- 
vinced his slanderers, although at the expense of 
a humiliating confession on his own part which 
marred the sanctity of his private life. His po- 
litical conflicts, even within the party of which he 
was the acknowledged head, were often marked 

135 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

by fierce outbreaks of temper and vindictive pas- 
sion. These involved him in personal quarrels 
which sadly interfered with the plans and the 
policy of the Federalists, and one of which directly 
led to their overthrow. But his commanding tal- 
ents and weight of character were so transcendent, 
his genius for public service so unfailing, his po- 
litical vision so clear, and his devotion to public 
duty so constant, that even these great faults have 
hardly diminished the lustre of his fame, or the 
gratitude of his countrymen for his matchless 
services in laying the foundations of the Republic. 
He scorned all mercenary ideas and motives, all 
low ambitions, and his integrity was so absolute, 
and his patriotism so unselfish and exalted, that 
his name and career are a cherished national 
treasure. 

The tragical death of Hamilton has done much 
to embalm his name in the memory of his country- 
men. Great as we have seen him to be, he was 
not great enough to rise above the barbarous and 
brutal theory and practice of that age, which 
sanctioned and compelled a resort to the duel as 
the honorable mode of settling personal disputes, 
but to which the cruel sacrifice of his precious life 
put an end, at least in the Northern States. Two 
years before, he had followed to the grave his 
eldest son, a victim to the same senseless code of 
honor, and now, still in the very prime of his own 
life, at the age of forty-seven, in the midst of a 
great career of usefulness, crowned with all the 
laurels which his grateful country could bestow, 

136 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 

he was called to meet his own untimely fate. He 
accepted the challenge, forced upon him by his 
most dangerous and unscrupulous political adver- 
sary, with whom he had had many bitter contests, 
and who was at last determined to be rid of him. 
One glorious July morning, on the heights of Wee- 
hawken, overlooking the Hudson and in sight of 
his own happy home in New York — whose idol 
he had been — they met for the last and mortal 
combat. Hamilton fell fatally wounded at the 
first shot of his adversary, having fired his own 
pistol in the air, and so unhappily and unworthily 
ended the life of one of the noblest, manliest and 
most useful men of whom we have any record — 
the trusted friend and companion of Washing- 
ton — and one of the best gifts of God to the 
Nation which they labored together to found. 



137 



RALPH WALDO EMERSON 



RALPH WALDO EMERSON 

Address at the Passmore Edwards Institute, 
June 15th, 1903. 

WE come to-day, in these congenial sur- 
roundings of the Passmore Edwards 
Settlement, to unveil the bust of a great Amer- 
ican, certainly one of the greatest of them all, 
Ralph Waldo Emerson, the centenary of whose 
birth, on the 25th of May last, was celebrated with 
reverence and enthusiasm throughout his own 
country and in many distant lands. Hundreds of 
speakers and writers have been discussing his 
merits, and I have absolutely nothing new to offer 
on a subject so freshly familiar. I would much 
rather set him before you in his own words than 
in any of my own. 

His claims to distinction as poet, philosopher 
and prophet have been warmly advanced by his 
disciples, and as freely contested by the critics, 
but whatever controversy there is about him 
seems to me to be really a war of words and a 
contest of definitions. It is generally agreed that 
he was one of the great intellectual lights of the 
nineteenth century; that, as a result of his forty 
years of wide and almost universal reading, pro- 
found contemplation, brilliant writing, and en- 
larged discourse, he came to be recognized as one 

141 



RALPH WALDO EMERSON 

of the wisest of men, a great and efficient teacher 
of his own generation, and of that which came 
after it, and far in advance of his age on many 
important questions. 

He certainly had a vivid and fertile imagina- 
tion, a wonderful power of idealizing the facts of 
nature and the events of life, and a quick sympa- 
thy with all that concerned and interested human- 
ity, which enabled him to produce some poems 
which still live after half a century, and which are 
likely to find many readers in coming generations. 

His neighbors assembled at Concord Bridge to 
celebrate the comj)letion of the monument which 
marked the spot where the plain farmers of New 
England offered the first armed resistance to 
British troops. There bloodshed on both sides 
began the long conflict which divided the British 
Empire into two independent nations, — nations 
which now at last happily vie with each other in 
words and acts of mutual friendship, and in ef- 
forts to advance the best interests of mankind. 
In a single stanza he told the thrilling story in 
words that still echo like the sound of a trumpet : 

" By the rude bridge that arched the flood, 
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, 
Here once the embattled farmers stood, 

And fired the shot heard round the World." 

Recalling his visit to Rome, and what he had 
seen of the work of Michael Angelo, as an archi- 
tect, upon the great cathedral with its soaring 

142 



RALPH WALDO EMERSON 

dome, he apostrophized architecture as the Divine 
Art, directly illuminated by the Spirit of God, in 
words that ought to be immortal : — 

* * The hand that rounded Peter 's Dome, 
And groined the aisles of Christian Rome, 
Wrought in a sad sincerity ; 
Himself from God he could not free ; 
He builded better than he knew : 
The conscious stone to beauty grew. ' ' 

He had absolute faith in the close relation 
between the living God and the spirit of the indi- 
vidual man, and in the boundless possibilities of 
human nature as its direct result. 

Listen to another single verse which ought to 
live as long as the language lasts, expressing this 
idea. He was showing how noble youth, brought 
up, it may be, in luxury and ease, in sport and 
idling, prove to be heroes when the trumpet 
sounds and their names are called; and turning 
their backs on all they have prized before, on 
home and love itself, risk life and limb and happi- 
ness to save or serve the cause of their country: 

** So nigh is grandeur to our dust, 
So near is God to man, 
Wlien Duty whispers low ' Thou must, * 
The youth replies, * I can.' " 

Nor are these utterances isolated and excep- 
tional in their style and character. Much of his 

143 



RALPH WALDO EMERSON 

poetry breathes the same lofty spirit, the same 
living imagery. And sometimes he was master of 
a lighter vein, full of sparkling wit and genial 
fun. 

Witness his fable of the quarrel between the 
squirrel and the mountain: 

" The Mountain and the Squirrel had a quarrel, 

And the former called the latter ' little Prig. ' 

Bun replied: 
' You are doubtless very big, 

But all sorts of things and weather 

Must be taken in together 

To make up a year 

And a sphere, 

And I think it no disgrace 

To occupy my place. 

If I'm not so large as you. 

You are not so small as I, 

And not half so spry. 

I'll not deny you make 

A very pretty squirrel track. 

Talents differ : all is well and wisely put, 

If I cannot carry forests on my back 

Neither can you crack a nut. ' " 

Whether he is justly to be called a great poet 
or is destined to an immortality of centuries or 
not, he gave us much delightful poetry, and the 
lovers of poetry, who form but a small part of 
the readers of the English language, will always 
find much to cherish in what he has written. 

You all know the main facts of his simple and 
uneventful life. He was a Puritan of the Puri- 

144 



RALPH WALDO EMERSON 

tans, or if there be sucli a thing as a Puritan of 
the Puritans of the Puritans, he was exactly that. 
He was descended from a long line of dissenting 
clergymen, beginning with the original immigrant 
who had fled from persecution at the hands of 
Archbishop Laud. Being silenced for Non-con- 
formity he had escaped to New England, and 
founded a church at Concord, the little village 
fifteen miles from Boston, which was to be Emer- 
son's home for life. 

Graduating at Harvard College at the age of 
18, Emerson studied theology, and, under the in- 
fluence of Dr. Channing, he became a Unitarian 
minister, a Protestant of the Protestants, and 
soon found himself the pastor of a church in 
Boston ; but even the gentle trammels of that mild 
communion could not long contain his independent 
soul. He gave up the sacred office, and all the 
difficulties which it involved for his gentle spirit, 
and retired to his ancestral village of Concord, 
where for forty years he devoted himself to plain 
living and high thinking, to deep reading and 
writing and lecturing, by which he obtained his 
livelihood, for he had been born and bred in pov- 
erty and received nothing by inheritance. 

To two successive generations of his country- 
men, in his lectures, addresses and published wri- 
tings, he gave, from time to time, the rich fruits 
of his reading, study, and contemplation. He 
read everything good, but Shakespeare, Plato, 
Plutarch, Goethe, Bacon, Swedenborg and Mon- 
taigne seem to have been his favorite authors. 

145 



RALPH WALDO EMERSON 

He remembered what he read as few people do, 
and made notes of whatever impressed him, which 
furnished the material for those copious and apt 
illustrations of which his works are full. 

Though he severed his connection with the 
churches he certainly had a religion of his own 
which exalted and spiritualized him. Dr. Holmes, 
who Imew him well and is one of his most appre- 
ciative biographers, says : " His creed was a brief 
one, but he carried it everywhere with him. In 
all he did, in all he said, and, so far as all out- 
ward signs could show, in all his thoughts, the 
indwelling spirit was his light and guide : through 
all nature he looked up to Nature's God; and if 
he did not worship the man Christ Jesus as the 
Churches of Christendom have done, he followed 
His footsteps so nearly that our good Methodist, 
Father Taylor, spoke of him as more like Christ 
than any man he had known." 

The great influence which, by his wisdom and 
spotless life, he rapidly acquired and maintained 
to the end, certainly had a marked effect in miti- 
gating the rigid tone of dogmatism from which he 
revolted. Dean Stanley, on his return from Amer- 
ica, is said to have reported that '' religion had 
there passed through an evolution from Edwards 
to Emerson, and that the genial atmosphere which 
Emerson had done so much to promote is shared 
by all the churches equally." 

The same Father Taylor, a great apostle of 
Methodism, was so impressed by his pure and 
exalted spirit, that when some of his Methodist 

146 



RALPH WALDO EMERSON 

friends took him to task for maintaining his 
friendship with Emerson, on the ground that, 
being a Unitarian, he must go to a place not to 
be mentioned in good society, he replied, ' ' It does 
look so, but I am sure of one thing; if Emerson 
does go to — that place — he will change the 
climate there, and emigration will set that 
way. ' ' 

Of his prose writings, how is it possible to say 
more than was said by Matthew Arnold, who 
judged him very critically, and cannot be said to 
have exaggerated anything in his favor? What 
he says is this : 

" As Wordsworth's poetry is in my judgment 
the most important work done in verse in our lan- 
guage during the present century " (the nine- 
teenth, of course), '' so Emerson's Essays are, I 
think, the most important work done in prose." 

His busy brain was never still, his driving pen 
was never idle, his eloquent voice, in lectures, and 
discourses, profound, entertaining and instruct- 
ive, was heard by his countrymen with ever in- 
creasing delight and satisfaction. Self-reliance, 
absolute trust in his own conscience and convic- 
tions, and a fearless following of these in conduct 
and action, wherever they might lead, were the 
constant guides of his own life; and he never 
failed to urge upon his hearers and readers to 
pursue the same path. 

He appealed always to the higher, the highest, 
motives, instincts, passions of our nature, moral, 
intellectual and spiritual, and was never content 

147 



RALPH WALDO EMERSON 

to discover and repeat what other men had said 
and thought on the subject in hand, except to 
illustrate his own thoughts and conclusions, which 
he evolved fearlessly from his own inner light, 
to which alone he looked for inspiration. The 
wide scope of subjects which he treated embraced 
the whole range of human life, conduct and as- 
pirations. His mission was to arouse, to stimu- 
late and elevate the public and private life of 
America to a higher and nobler plane. 

He began to answer Sydney Smith's cynical 
question " In the four quarters of the globe who 
reads an American book? " and led the way in 
rescuing American literature from the sluggish 
and torpid stream in which it had long been con- 
fined. He lived to see it flowing in a broad and 
ever widening current, which refreshed and ani- 
mated the whole of our national life. It was his 
peculiar gift and function to stimulate and inspire 
those who labored with him or followed after 
him in the field of letters, and before he died the 
real question came to be '' In the four quarters 
of the globe, who does not read American books 
and recognize American ideas'? '* 

As time went on his books found many sympa- 
thetic and admiring readers among thoughtful 
men and women in England, and in foreign coun- 
tries into whose many languages they were trans- 
lated, and the Emerson cult became very widely 
spread. Herman Grimm wrote to him from Ber- 
lin: '' Wlienever I think of America I think of 
you," and I have no doubt that to many serious 

148 



EALPH WALDO EMERSON 

and earnest souls in many lands, the name of our 
young Republic suggests first the image of this 
profound thinker and stimulating teacher. 

I confess that of all the authors with whom I 
have become familiar, I turn always first to him 
for light and leading, and find him more suggest- 
ive, more instructive, more awakening than any 
other ; there are but few subjects dealing with the 
conduct of life, or the duties of man, or the study 
of nature, of which he has not treated more or 
less directly ; and anyone who has to take up such 
a subject for the first time, cannot begin better 
than by turning to his pages to see what he has 
said about it. 

President Eliot, of Harvard, in a carefully pre- 
pared essay, quite worthy of Emerson himself, 
read in Boston on the centennial of his birth, has 
demonstrated that Mr. Emerson was far in ad- 
vance of his time on many moral, social, and polit- 
ical questions, and that he indicated, with singular 
sagacity and foresight, the course of their future 
development — as the same actually occurred — 
so that although the ranks of the prophets are 
closed against him, we may well describe him as 
the forerunner of American thought. 

He rarely took part in any controversies, al- 
though many were raised in the path of his ad- 
vancing progress, but left them to be fought out 
by others, while he kept the even tenor of his 
way, thinking and teaching still. He cherished 
with unfaltering hope and confidence the noblest 
aspirations for his country, and uniformly pre- 

149 



EALPH WALDO EMERSON 

dieted its ultimate success and triumph in those 
better things that constitute true civilization; 
but he never hesitated to scourge his countrymen 
for their shortcomings, which stood in the way 
of their reaching the final goal of his high ideal. 
This he could always do with effect and authority, 
because he stood aside from politics, and because 
his courage and virtue commanded universal 
reverence. 

He lent the generous and telling influence of his 
character and opinion to the cause of reform, but 
sometimes turned rather a cold shoulder to prac- 
tical reformers, whose rough and tumble methods 
were at variance with his gentle and retiring 
spirit. In great crises, however, his soul was 
stirred, and his voice rang out like a megaphone 
across the land. 

In his address at Concord in commemoration of 
Emancipation in the West Indies he concluded 
with these prophetic words : — 

** The sentiment of Right, once very low and indis- 
tinct, but ever more articulate because it is the voice of 
the Universe, pronounces Freedom. The Power that 
built this fabric of things affirms it in the heart ; and in 
the history of the First of August has made a sign to 
the ages, of His will." 

Within twenty years from that utterance, Lin- 
coln had signed the proclamation which freed all 
the slaves in America, and the vast Empire of 
Russia had no longer a slave within its borders. 

150 



RALPH WALDO EMERSON 

When Sumner was struck down in the Senate 
for words spoken in debate, he declared: 

" The events of the last few years and months and 
days have taught us the lessons of centuries. I think 
we must get rid of slavery or we must get rid of free- 
dom." 

When the attempt was made to force slavery 
upon Kansas by armed might, he said : 

" I wish we could stop every man who is about to 
leave the country. Send home every one who is abroad 
lest they should find no country to return to. Come 
home and stay at home while there is a country to save. 
When it is lost, it will be time enough for any who are 
luckless enough to remain alive, to gather up their 
clothes and depart to some land where Freedom exists." 

When the Proclamation of Emancipation was 
actually signed, he said: 

' ' The first condition of success is secured in putting 
ourselves right. We have recovered ourselves from our 
false position and planted ourselves on a law of Nature. ' ' 

" If that fail, 
The pillared firmament is rottenness, 
And Earth 's base built on stubble. ' ' 

" The Government has assured itself of the best con- 
stituency in the world. Every spark of intellect, every 
virtuous feeling, every religious heart, every man of 
honor, every poet, every philosopher, the generosity of 

151 



RALPH WALDO EMERSON 

the cities, the health of the country, the strong arms of 
the mechanic, the endurance of farmers, the passionate 
conscience of women, the sympathy of distant nations, 
all rally to its support." 

When Lincoln was struck down he said of him : 

' ' By his courage, his justice, his even temper, his fer- 
tile counsel, his humanity, he stood a heroic figure in the 
centre of a heroic epoch. He is the true history of the 
American people in his time. Step by step he walked 
before them ; slow with their slowness ; quickening his 
march by theirs; the true representative of this con- 
tinent, an entirely public man, father of his country; 
the pulse of twenty millions throbbing in his heart, the 
thought of their minds articulated by his tongue. Only 
Washington can compare with him in fortune." 

Scouted at first as a mystic and a dreamer, 
Balph Waldo Emerson lived long enough to re- 
ceive the general homage of the confidence and 
affection of his countrymen. They honored him 
for his dauntless courage, his sublime devotion 
to what he believed to be the truth and the right, 
his clear and controlling conscience, his wisdom 
of which they garnered the ripe fruits, and his 
life-long endeavor to elevate the standard of 
their literature, morals, and manners. They ad- 
mired his unfaltering patriotism, and his ardent 
sympathy with human nature, which no time could 
limit and no continent could bound. They loved 
him for his sweet and simple nature and life, his 
serene and spotless character, his modest and un- 

152 



RALPH WALDO EMERSON 

assuming manners, and, most of all, because he 
loved them, and spent his life in thinking and 
working for their highest welfare. Heart and soul 
he was full of sunshine; he shed its beams all 
about him and saw and revealed only the bright 
side. 

I rejoice that this striking image of him has 
found an abiding-place in this noble building, the 
home and centre of a great and good work. I 
congratulate Mr. Passmore Edwards and Mrs. 
Humphry Ward on acquiring this bust as a fitting 
ornament of this Institute, on the shelves of 
whose Library his books will be found. I am sure 
that they will reach many readers, and know that 
they will exercise on their minds nothing but a 
wholesome, elevating and inspiring influence. It 
all depends on what you read for. If you read 
only for dissipation of thought, or for oblivious 
languor, don't touch Emerson. But if you seek 
for ideas and information, for light and leading, 
for real inspiration, for love of country, and faith 
in Grod and faith in man, you will find them all in 
him. 

Three years ago, when ' ' The Hall of Fame for 
Great Americans " was established in the Uni- 
versity of New York by the lavish generosity of 
a citizen, the name of Emerson came out from the 
public election, confirmed by the votes of the coun- 
cil, as the eighth among famous native-born 
Americans of all the past. The seven who pre- 
ceded him were Washington, Lincoln, Webster, 
Franklin, Grant, Marshall, Jefferson, all men of 

153 



EALPH WALDO EMERSON 

affairs, of the greatest affairs. But Emerson, as 
a pure man of letters, stood first in the hearts of 
his countrymen, and there we may be content to 
leave him to the judgment of posterity. 



154 



THE SUPREME COURT OF THE 
UNITED STATES 

ITS PLACE IN THE CONSTITUTION 



THE SUPREME COURT OF 
THE UNITED STATES 

ITS PLACE IN THE CONSTITUTION 

Address delivered be/ore the Political and Social Education League, 
May 13th, 1903. 

I INVITE your attention to a brief study of 
the Supreme Court of the United States, a 
cardinal feature of our Federal representative 
Government, balancing and harmonizing all its 
parts, a tribunal which has received the general 
approval and admiration of foreign Jurists and 
Statesmen, and commands the universal respect 
and confidence of the people for whom it adminis- 
ters justice. 

The Federal Convention of 1787, which framed 
our Constitution and created this unique Tri- 
bunal, was composed mostly of members of the 
legal profession, which has always in America 
been the chief nursery of Statesmen ; but Wash- 
ington, the soldier, presided, and Franklin, the 
philosopher, advised at every step. The members 
of the Convention were undoubtedly chosen from 
the best qualified men that the country could fur- 
nish for the momentous work which was set 
before them, and their merits have been so uni- 
versally recognized that I need not repeat any of 

157 



THE SUPREME COURT 

the emphatic tributes which many great English- 
men have paid to the results of their labors. 

Their work was finished in four months' secret 
session at Philadelphia, but most of them had 
been in training for it through twenty long years 
of trial and trouble. 

From 1765, the time of the passage of the Stamp 
Act, which was passed through both Houses of 
Parliament with little opposition, the Colonists, 
and especially the lawyers of the Colonies, had 
been careful and earnest students of the princi- 
ples of free government. 

In 1774, having exhausted in vain all appeals 
to King and Parliament for a redress of their 
grievances, they sent delegates to a Continental 
Congress to deliberate on the state of public af- 
fairs, and in this Congress, which lasted for seven 
years, many of the future framers of the Consti- 
tution who were members of it found a most in- 
structive school of statesmanship, and constantly 
devoted themselves to the social and political edu- 
cation of the Colonists in matters of government 
and of public law and popular rights. 

In 1776, as the representatives of the United 
States of America in General Congress assembled, 
appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for 
the rectitude of their intentions, they did, '' in the 
name and by the authority of the good people of 
the Colonies, solemnly publish and declare that 
these United Colonies are, and of right ought to 
be, free and independent States; that they are, 
and of right ought to be, absolved from all alle- 

158 



THE SUPREME COURT 

giance to the British Crown; and that all polit- 
ical connection between them and the State of 
Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dis- 
solved." They declared '' that as free and inde- 
pendent States they have full power to levy war, 
conclude peace, contract alliances, establish com- 
merce, and to do all other acts and things which 
independent States may of right do," and for the 
support of this declaration, with a firm reliance 
on the protection of Divine Providence, they 
mutually pledged to each other their lives, their 
fortunes, and their sacred honor. 

From the hour of the Declaration, the men who 
made it, and all the other Statesmen of the Colo- 
nies, had to give renewed and constant study to 
the whole science of government. 

As they proved able by force of arms to make 
good this declaration, the United Colonies became 
from its date a new Nation, over which Congress, 
by general consent and acquiescence, exercised 
the powers of a general Government, for all the 
purposes of the very serious exigency which had 
called it into existence. But it was a Government 
by Congress only, with feeble and undefined pow- 
ers, without an Executive and without a Judiciary. 
While the war lasted it barely sufficed, and af- 
forded daily object lessons of its own defects, and 
of what was required for a better Government 
when better days should come. 

The several individual States, being absolved 
from the Royal Charters under which they had 
before practically managed their own affairs, 

159 



THE SUPREME COURT 

adopted written Constitutions, based in each case 
upon the Sovereignty of the People, to take the 
place of the former dominion of Parliament. An 
epoch of Constitution making set in, during which 
the principles of representative popular govern- 
ment were discussed and understood. Virginia, 
the largest of the States, the home of Washington, 
Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, who were to be 
four out of the first five Presidents of the United 
States, took a leading part. New Hampshire had 
already framed a temporary form of government 
*' during," as they said, *' the unhappy and un- 
natural contest with Great Britain. ' ' South Caro- 
lina and New Jersey had followed, but in the case 
of the former it was expressly declared that the 
Constitution established was '* established until 
an accommodation of the unhappy differences 
between Great Britain and America could be 
obtained. ' ' 

Massachusetts, in 1780, with the utmost pains 
and deliberation prepared and adopted a complete 
Constitution, in which the powers of Government 
were carefully distributed, with the solemn decla- 
ration that neither the legislative, executive or 
judicial department should ever exercise the pow- 
ers of either of the others ** to the end that it 
may be a government of laws and not of men." 
During the war the other colonies were engaged 
in the same business of founding States upon the 
principles of civil and religious liberty, embodied 
in written Constitutions. Rhode Island alone, 
founded by Roger Williams, the great apostle of 

160 



THE SUPREME COURT 

Toleration, having received from Charles the 
Second in 1663 a Royal Charter, subsisted under 
it until 1842 without adopting any written Con- 
stitution. 

But it was not only in the individual States that 
the Framers of our Constitution were in all those 
years gathering knowledge and experience in the 
science of popular government. From the very 
date of the Declaration, Congress, conscious of 
the inadequacy of its powers, even for the pur- 
poses of carrying on war and conducting foreign 
affairs, entered upon the novel and difficult task 
of arranging a scheme which should enable it 
more efficiently to conduct those affairs which 
were of common interest to all the people of the 
thirteen States, and which no one of them, nor 
all of them individually, could control. After two 
years they adopted and submitted to the States 
what they styled " Articles of Confederation and 
perpetual Union," but it was not until March, 
1781, that the powers of Congress were enlarged 
by the final ratification of these articles by the 
delegates of all the States. 

But this attempted bond of union — a crude 
experiment in the formation of a National Gov- 
ernment — proved little better than a rope of 
sand, and utterly failed to accomplish the pur- 
poses intended. While the war lasted the tremen- 
dous pressure of their common danger and com- 
mon distress kept the States together, and made 
them obedient to the requests of Congress which 
really had no power to command, but as soon as 

161 



THE SUPREME COURT 

this external pressure was taken off, they fell 
apart, and each asserted its independent sov- 
ereignty. 

So jealous were the States, which had just es- 
caped from the dominion of one central power, of 
anything which should seem to create dominion 
over them in another, that although upon paper 
they had laid many restraints upon their own 
action, and conferred upon Congress extensive 
powers over their Federal affairs, they had care- 
fully refrained from giving any sanction to those 
powers, and from granting to Congress the means 
of compelling obedience to its enactments. The 
Articles provided for no Federal Executive and 
for no Judiciary Department, although they au- 
thorized Congress to provide for the settlement of 
boundary disputes between States, and to appoint 
Courts of prize and for the trial of piracies and 
felonies on the high seas. Moreover, Congress 
could not of its own authority raise a dollar of 
money for revenue, or a single man to recruit its 
armies. It could only make requisitions for men 
and money upon individual States, which met 
them or not as they found it convenient. Nor 
could it proceed at all in the exercise of the prin- 
cipal powers nominally conferred upon it until 
nine States assented to the same. One of the lead- 
ing writers of the time thus describes the powers 
of Congress under this Confederation: — 

" By this political compact the United States in Con- 
gress assembled have exclusive power for the following 

162 



THE SUPREME COUET 

purposes, without being able to execute one of them. 
They may make and conclude Treaties, but can only 
recommend the observance of them. They may appoint 
Ambassadors, but cannot defray even the expense of 
their tables. They may borrow money in their own 
name on the faith of the Union, but cannot pay a dollar. 
They may coin money, but they cannot purchase an 
ounce of bullion. They may make war and determine 
what number of troops are necessary, but cannot raise 
a single soldier. In short, they may declare everything, 
and do nothing." 

Judge Story says that, strong as this language 
is, it lias no coloring beyond what the naked 
truth would justify, and even Washington himself 
wrote: ^' The Confederation appears to me to be 
little more than a shadow without the substance, 
and Congress a nugatory body, their ordinances 
being little attended to." 

Of course, under such a system our national 
affairs drifted steadily and rapidly from bad to 
worse. Interest on the public debt could not be 
paid, nor the ordinary expenses of government 
be provided for. The treaties which had been 
made could not be carried out, and foreign nations 
would not deal in the way of new treaties with 
the envoys of a body, which had no head and no 
power to perform what they should agree to in its 
behalf. Our external commerce was at the mercy 
of foreign nations, whose laws contrived for its 
destruction. Congress could do nothing to counter- 
act. And worst of all, our domestic commerce, 
which between all the citizens of one nation should 

163 



THE SUPREME COURT 

be free and equal, was at the mercy of the caprice 
or selfishness of each individual State. There 
were many boundary disputes between States 
which threatened civil war. Federal laws were a 
dead letter, without Federal Courts to expound 
and define their true meaning and operation, or 
an Executive to see that they were properly exe- 
cuted. There was a general failure as yet to real- 
ize in actual enjoyment the advantages we had 
won by seven years of war, and everything seemed 
drifting towards bankruptcy, disunion, and an- 
archy. 

But these very defects of the Confederation, 
and the evils which resulted from them, demanded 
the constant exercise of the best brains in all the 
States to understand and to remedy them, and 
opened a new school for all our Statesmen in the 
study of Constitutional Government. When 
Washington had laid down his sword and sur- 
rendered his commission to Congress, after the 
signing of the Treaty of Peace which acknowl- 
edged the independence of the United States, he 
exhorted his countrymen by all they held dear to 
provide for the establishment of a strong and 
stable government as the only hope of retaining 
the liberties they had won; and from that hour 
until the Federal Constitution was made and rati- 
fied, he and Hamilton, and Franklin and Madison, 
and all the other great Statesmen who made it 
or helped to secure its adoption, were engaged in 
the constant study of the principles of free gov- 
ernment, and in enforcing them upon the attention 

164 



THE SUPREME COURT 

of their fellow citizens, so that they came to the 
performance of their great duties in the Federal 
Convention as graduates of the best practical 
school of Constitutional Law that the world has 
ever seen. 

Their allotted task was to create a National 
Government which should reach, for its own 
proper purposes, by its own power, every man 
and every foot of territory in the whole United 
States, and should at the same time leave un- 
touched and undiminished the complete control by 
each State of all its internal and domestic af- 
fairs ; — which should be entirely adequate with- 
out aid from the States, to govern the people 
effectively in all matters that involved the general 
interests of all, to deal with foreign nations with 
the whole power and resources of the entire people 
behind it, in all the exigencies of Peace and War, 
and to accomplish all this with the least possible 
vesting of arbitrary power in any department or 
officer of the new Government. 

They differed in opinion and sentiment on many 
points, but all agreed in a supreme dread of arbi- 
trary power, whether it should be exercised by 
the Executive, the Legislative or the Judiciary 
Department, whether by a single man, or by a 
majority of all, for they considered that the 
majority without any restrictions upon its power 
might become quite as dangerous as any other 
despot. They did not believe with my Lord Coke 
that absolute despotic power must in all govern- 
ments reside somewhere. They carried this dis- 

165 



THE SUPREME COURT 

trust of arbitrary power so far that they actually 
tied the hands of the people, whom they regarded 
as the source of all political power, and deprived 
them of the right to consider any amendment of 
the Constitution, until it should be proposed by 
a vote of two-thirds of both Houses of Congress 
or by a Convention called by Congress, on the 
application of the Legislatures of two-thirds of 
the States, and deprived them of the power of 
voting directly upon any amendment, which could 
only be ratified by the Legislatures or Conven- 
tions of three-fourths of the States. 

In other words, the People of the United States 
who ordained the Constitution, deprived them- 
selves of the power to modify it by the direct vote 
of a majority or two-thirds or even three-quarters 
of their own number, whether that number should 
be three millions or eighty millions. They must 
act deliberately and indirectly through Con- 
gresses, Legislatures, and Conventions. Truly a 
rare instance of political self-restraint at the 
basis of free popular government. 

One of the best definitions of the objects of such 
government is contained in the preamble of the 
Constitution : — 

" We, the People of the United States, in order to 
form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure 
domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, 
promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of 
liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and 
establish this Constitution for the United States of 
America." 

166 



THE SUPREME COURT 

It was to " establish justice " for the people of 
the United States that the Federal Judiciary, 
with the Supreme Court as its head, was created. 
It forms the balance wheel by which the affairs 
of the Nation and its relation to the States are 
kept in working order, and is itself held in check 
by the power of the President to appoint its mem- 
bers as vacancies may occur, and by the power of 
Congress to impeach them for misconduct, to 
regulate the measure of its appellate jurisdiction, 
and to increase or diminish its numbers. The per- 
manent stability of the judicial power is assured 
by its being imbedded in the Constitution, with a 
jurisdiction co-ordinate with that of the Executive 
and Legislative Departments, by the extreme dif- 
ficulty in the way of any amendment that would 
impair it, and by the universal conviction which 
the experience of a century has produced, that its 
continued existence with the full enjojTnent of its 
present functions is absolutely essential to the 
successful working of our scheme of popular rep- 
resentative government. 

The great achievement of the framers of the 
Constitution was so to distribute the powers of 
government between the States and the Nation as 
to give the latter supreme control over all subjects 
that concerned the general interests of all, and 
reserve to each of the former exclusive control 
over local affairs which concerned only its own 
territory and people, and to do this in such a way 
that the State and Federal Administrations 
should not clash in actual operation. 

167 



THE SUPEEME COURT 

They knew well the importance of a distribution 
of the powers of government between the three 
great departments. They created a Congress on 
which they conferred legislative powers over 
eighteen enumerated subjects, necessarily involv- 
ing the general interests of the people of all the 
States and essential to National Sovereignty, in- 
cluding the levying and collection of taxes for 
Federal purposes, the borrowing of money, the 
regulation of commerce with foreign nations and 
among the several States, the coining of money, 
declaring war, raising and supporting armies, and 
maintaining a navy. 

They placed such limits upon the exercise by 
Congress of legislative power as should prevent 
its interference with legitimate local administra- 
tion by the States, or with the fundamental rights 
of the citizens, and put such prohibitions upon the 
legislative power of the States as should prevent 
their interference with the general powers and 
functions of the Federal Government. 

They vested the executive power of the Federal 
Government in the President, who was made Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy and of the 
Militia of the States when called into the serv- 
ice of the United States. He was granted 
power to pardon offenders against the United 
States, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of 
the Senate concur, to have a veto power over acts 
of Congress, which could be overridden only by a 
vote of two-thirds on reconsideration. He was 
also to nominate, with the advice and consent of 

168 



THE SUPREME COURT 

the Senate, Ambassadors, Judges, and all the 
principal officers of the United States, to recom- 
mend to the consideration of Congress such meas- 
ures as he should judge necessary and proper, to 
commission all officers of the United States, and 
to take care that the laws should be faithfully 
executed. 

And, finally, to secure the absolute supremacy 
of the Federal Government over all matters of 
Federal cognizance, it was expressly provided 
that ' ' this Constitution and the laws of the United 
States which shall be passed in pursuance thereof, 
and all Treaties made under the authority of the 
United States, shall be the supreme law of the 
land, and the judges of every State shall be bound 
thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of 
any State to the contrary notwithstanding." 
This making the Federal Constitution and 
Treaties made, and laws of Congress passed 
under its authority, the supreme law of the land 
is the key of our dual system of Government, as 
the omnipotence of Parliament is the key of the 
British Constitution. But the Federal Govern- 
ment, though supreme within the limits pre- 
scribed, is not omnipotent; it must keep within 
those limits. 

By the 10th amendment, passed immediately 
after the adoption of the Constitution, to prevent 
Congress from meddling with the domestic con- 
cerns of the States, or exercising powers not 
granted to them, it was expressly provided that 
the powers not delegated to the United States by 

169 



THE SUPEEME COURT 

the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, 
are reserved to the States respectively, or to the 
People. 

Thus the people of the United States created 
for themselves two separate and distinct govern- 
ments, each " of the people, by the people, and 
for the people," each independent and exclusive 
of the other within its own scope and sphere, and 
each able, without aid from the other, to reach for 
its own purposes, by its own authority, every per- 
son and every foot of land within its territory. 
Complex as it may appear to people living under 
other forms of government, this dual system has 
worked very simply, smoothly, and harmoniously 
from the beginning until now, except for the single 
occasion when the terrible question of slavery 
proved to be too much for all the Departments of 
Government combined, and could only be settled 
by our long years of Civil War. 

But how has this marvellous result been accom- 
plished? How has it been possible for these two 
Governments, each of prescribed and limited 
powers, and each department of both similarly 
defined, to act independently and at the same time 
harmoniously over the same people? By what 
magical force has each power. State and Federal, 
been kept within its own limits? What has pre- 
vented constant and hopeless conflict between 
State functions and officials, and Federal func- 
tions and officials, between State and Nation, and 
between State and State, originally thirteen in 
number and now forty-five? How has it been 

170 



THE SUPREME COURT 

possible to secure the due protection of the law 
to the citizens of one State in each of the other 
States, and the rights of aliens against local 
prejudice and discrimination in any State, and 
how has the faith of Treaties been preserved in 
every locality! 

These, and a thousand other similar questions 
and doubts as to the successful working of our 
system, are answered by pointing to the Supreme 
Court created by the Constitution, and to the 
Federal Courts inferior to it created by Congress, 
in which the judicial power of the United States 
is vested, a power which, as I have said, is co- 
ordinate and co-extensive with the Executive and 
Legislative. Over whatever region Congress may 
attempt to legislate, or the President to execute 
its laws, there the judicial power extends, to pass, 
if need be, upon the legality of their acts and the 
validity of their laws. The Constitution, and 
each of its provisions, is supreme over President, 
Congress, Courts, and States, and the valid laws 
of Congress, and Treaties made under the author- 
ity of the United States, are the supreme law of 
the land for all its people, and for the Courts, 
Legislatures, and Governors of each State. 

The Supreme Court is the final judge of the 
validity of all laws passed by Congress or by the 
Legislatures of each of the forty-five States, when 
brought to the test of the Constitution of the 
United States, and of the legality of all official 
acts when brought to the same test. It and the 
Federal Courts inferior to it furnish the vehicle 

171 



THE SUPREME COURT 

by which the judicial power of the United States 
is carried into the whole of its vast territory, to 
administer justice within the limits prescribed to 
it, to enforce the Federal laws and to punish 
offenders against them. 

The third Article of the Constitution is mar- 
vellously brief and simple. The Judges, accord- 
ing to that good old rule which has worked so 
well in England since the days of William and 
Mary, are to hold their offices during good be- 
havior, and can only be removed by impeach- 
ment, and their compensation shall not be dimin- 
ished during their continuance in office. The 
Supreme Court has original jurisdiction only in 
cases affecting Ambassadors, Public Ministers, 
and Consuls, and in those in which a State shall 
be a party. The first branch of this original 
power has seldom been invoked, but over and over 
again a great State has been brought to its bar 
by another State to settle boundary disputes, al- 
ways the most dangerous to the peace of adjoining 
States, and in each instance its decree has been 
submitted to with implicit obedience — a most 
unique judicial power, and a most convincing ex- 
ample to persuade all nations to settle these most 
perilous questions by arbitration. 

It has been well said " that the provision that 
the judicial power created by the people shall be 
the arbiter between the States themselves, in all 
their controversies with each other, marks the 
highest level ever attained in the progress of 
representative government." 

172 



THE SUPREME COURT 

Tocqueville says : ' ' In the nations of Europe 
the Courts of Justice are only called upon to try 
the controversies of private individuals, but the 
Supreme Court of the United States summons 
sovereign powers to its bar." 

John Stuart Mill declares it to be *' the first 
example of what is now one of the most prominent 
wants of civilized society, a real International 
Tribunal." 

In all other matters the jurisdiction of the 
Supreme Court is only appellate. The judicial 
power extends only to cases as they arise between 
party and party, and in the Supreme Court as 
they come to it mostly by appeal from the inferior 
Federal Courts, or by writ of error to the State 
Courts. 

The Courts of the United States exercise no 
supervision over, or interference with, the Presi- 
dent or Congress, or the Legislatures of the 
States. They have no veto power. They do not 
lie in wait for Acts of Congress, to strangle them 
at their birth. They have no jurisdiction to pro- 
nounce any Statute, either of a State or of the 
United States, void because irreconcilable with the 
Constitution, except as they are called upon to 
adjudge the legal rights of litigants in actual con- 
troversies. They simply pass upon the rights of 
parties as they come before them, and if a pro- 
vision of the Constitution, or of a Federal Statute, 
or a Treaty is invoked for or against a right 
claimed or denied, they interpret the Constitution, 
the Law, or the Treaty, and determine the right. 

173 



THE SUPEEME COURT 

In this way, and in this way only, if an Act of 
Congress or of a State Legislature is claimed to 
be invalid, or an official Act is claimed to be illegal 
under the Constitution of the United States, and 
the decision of that question is vital and neces- 
sary to determine the rights of the parties, they 
perform the ordinary duty of interpretation, and 
declare the validity or invalidity of the Act, and 
so determine the right between the parties before 
them in that particular case, and for no other 
purpose, and this may happen months or years 
after the enactment of the Statute. 

The Supreme Court will perform no duties ex- 
cept judicial duties. So, when in 1793 President 
Washington requested the opinions of the Judges 
on the construction of the Treaty with France of 
1778, they declined to comply, and. when an early 
Congress enacted that certain pension claims 
should be considered and passed upon by the 
Federal Courts, the Supreme Court upheld them 
in refusing to act under it, upon the ground that 
the power proposed to be conferred was not ju- 
dicial power within the meaning of the Constitu- 
tion. Nor will the Court give a hearing to a fic- 
titious or collusive case, contrived to raise a ques- 
tion as to the validity of a Statute. 

Keeping strictly within the limit prescribed to 
it of exercising only judicial power, the Federal 
Judiciary has steadily refrained from exercising 
any political power, which belongs exclusively to 
Congress and the President, and so it has been 
brought into no collision with the other depart- 

174 



THE SUPREME COURT 

ments. It will not even indulge in discussions, or 
express opinions upon purely political questions. 

All attempts, for instance, to induce it to inter- 
fere either to restrain or compel the President in 
the exercise of his power to see that the laws are 
faithfully executed have failed. In the case of 
foreign nations, as well as in that of the Sovereign 
States of the Union, the Government acknowl- 
edged by the President, or by the President and 
Congress, is always recognized by the Supreme 
Court. In all such questions as are purely polit- 
ical it holds itself bound by the acts of the other 
departments. 

So the question whether and upon what condi- 
tions aliens shall be expelled or excluded from the 
United States, belonging to the political depart- 
ments of the Government, the Court refused to 
express any opinion upon the wisdom, the policy, 
or the justice of the measures enacted by Con- 
gress in the exercise of the powers confi(led to it 
by the Constitution over that subject. Thus it 
constantly sets the example to each of the other 
departments of the Government of minding its 
own business, and keeping strictly within its as- 
signed province. 

But, careful as the Judges are to confine the 
exercise of the Federal judicial power to cases 
as they arise, that power does extend to '' all 
cases of law and equity arising under the Con- 
stitution, the laws of the United States, and 
Treaties made under their authority, to all cases 
affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers 

175 



THE SUPREME COURT 

and Consuls, and to all cases of Admiralty and 
Maritime jurisdiction; " and whenever any such 
case does come before the Supreme Court it must 
take cognizance of it, and it cannot shrink, and 
never has shrunk, from determining the question 
of private right so arising. It is under these 
clauses that its unique and peculiar function 
of testing the validity of State Laws and Con- 
stitutions and of Federal Statutes, and the le- 
gality of the acts of State and Federal oflBcers 
arises. 

The remainder of the Federal judicial power 
depends wholly upon the character of the parties 
to the controversy. It extends '' to controversies 
to which the United States shall be a party." 
This enables the Federal Courts to enforce the 
Acts of Congress, civil and criminal, against all 
persons within the realm; '' to controversies be- 
tween two or more States, ' ' the purpose of which 
I have already indicated, as making the Supreme 
Court the Arbitrator and Peacemaker between 
Sovereign States; to ^' controversies between a 
State and citizens of another State, between citi- 
zens of different States, between citizens of the 
same State claiming lands under grants of differ- 
ent States, and between a State, or the citizens 
thereof, and foreign States, citizens, or subjects." 
It was wisely concluded that in all such cases 
justice would be safer and surer, against State or 
local interest, prejudice or passion, in Courts 
representing and vested with the authority of 
the whole nation, than in the Courts of the State 

176 



THE SUPREME COURT 

of an interested party, and that foreigners espe- 
cially should have the right to have their causes 
heard and decided by National Tribunals. 

These clauses, which make jurisdiction depend- 
ent upon the citizenship or character of the par- 
ties, have been a prolific source of litigation in 
the Federal Courts, have opened to them the en- 
tire field of law and equity; have extended their 
adjudications to the whole body of jurisprudence, 
and have given to the decisions of the Supreme 
Court, by reason of the weight and force of char- 
acter of the Court and its members, a command- 
ing authority with the State Courts, and persua- 
sive influence with foreign tribunals. But in this 
department of its functions the Supreme Court 
does not differ, in the scope of its powers and 
duties, from the Courts of last resort of other 
nafions, and its distinctive and peculiar character 
is not involved. 

The power of the Court to declare State and 
Federal Statutes, and the acts of the National and 
State Executive officers invalid, as being in vio- 
lation of the Constitution of the United States, 
naturally attracts the attention of foreign ob- 
servers. 

In the one hundred and twelve years of its 
existence the Court has pronounced twenty-one 
Acts of Congress, and more than two hundred 
State Statutes, to be in conflict with the Federal 
Constitution, and therefore invalid, and in each 
instance there has been complete and peaceful 
acquiescence in the decision. So that instead 

177 



THE SUPREME COURT 

of being a disturbing element, the exercise of this 
power confirms the peaceful relations between the 
States and the Nation, and between the States as 
among themselves, protects foreign nations from 
the breach of Treaties, and conserves the rights 
of property and contract, and the fundamental 
rights of personal liberty. 

I may not, perhaps, do better than to give you 
several examples of the exercise of this whole- 
some, beneficial, and altogether conservative 
power. 
\ The Constitution provides that ' ' no State shall 
pass any law impairing the obligation of con- 
tracts," and the aid of the Court has often been 
invoked for protection against the attempts of 
States to violate this prohibition. 

The framers of the Constitution believed, and 
the people of the United States, in view of the 
successful operation of this prohibition for more 
than a century, believe that the States ought not 
to be permitted to intervene between the parties 
to a contract, to destroy or impair the binding 
force of terms by which they have agreed to be 
bound, and that such intervention is contrary to 
[^ the principles of popular government. 

It is true that in the days that tried men*s souls 
before the adoption of the Federal Constitution 
many attempts had been made by States to inter- 
vene for this purpose, which doubtless led to the 
adoption of this clause. 

Mr. Hamilton, in the " Federalist," classing 
such laws with Bills of Attainder and Ex post 

178 



THE SUPREME COURT 

facto laws, which are prohibited by the same 
clause, says : — 

" Laws impairing the obligation of contracts are con- 
trary to the first principles of the social compact, and 
to every principle of sound legislation. They are pro- 
hibited by the spirit and scope of the State Constitutions. 
Our own experience has taught us, nevertheless, that 
additional fences against these dangers ought not to be 
omitted. Very properly, therefore, have the Convention 
added this constitutional bulwark in favor of personal 
security and private rights. And I am much deceived 
if they have not, in so doing, as faithfully consulted the 
genuine sentiments as the undoubted interests of their 
constituents. The sober people of America are weary 
of the fluctuating policy which has directed the public 
councils. They have seen with regret and indignation 
that sudden changes and legislative interferences in 
cases affecting personal rights, become jobs in the hands 
of enterprising and influential speculators, and snares 
to the more industrious and less informed part of the 
community. They have seen, too, that one legislative 
interference is but the first link of a long chain of repeti- 
tions, every subsequent interference being naturally pro- 
duced by the effects of the preceding. They very rightly 
infer, therefore, that some thorough reform is wanting 
which will banish speculations on public measures, in- 
spire a general prudence and industry, and give a regu- 
lar course to the business of Society." 

In the celebrated Dartmouth College case the 
protection of this clanse was invoked by the 
Trustees of the College, to recover its property 
from a person who held it for new Trustees under 

179 



THE SUPREME COURT 

the authority of a law of the State of New 
Hampshire. 

In 1769, King George the Third by Royal Char- 
ter incorporated twelve persons, therein named 
as *' The Trustees of Dartmouth College," grant- 
ing to them and their successors the usual cor- 
porate privileges and powers, and authorizing the 
Trustees who were to govern the College to fill 
up all vacancies which may be created in their 
own body. The application by the Founder, who 
had already established the College, was for a 
Charter to incorporate a religious and literary 
institution, and stated that large contributions 
had been made for the object, which would be con- 
ferred upon the Corporation as soon as it was 
created, and on the faith of the Charter the prop- 
erty was conveyed to it. After the revolution, in 
1816, the Legislature of New Hampshire passed 
an Act increasing the number of Trustees to 
twenty-one, giving the appointment of the addi- 
tional members to the Governor of the State, and 
creating a Board of Overseers with power to 
inspect and control the most important acts of 
the Trustees. 

Admitting that the provision of the Constitu- 
tion embraced only contracts which respect prop- 
erty or some object of value, and which confer 
rights which may be asserted in a Court of Jus- 
tice, and did not refer to grants of political power 
or to acts creating institutions to be employed in 
the administration of Government or of public 
property, or in which the State as a Government 

180 



THE SUPREME COURT 

was alone interested, the Court after most mature 
consideration reached the conclusion, that the 
Charter was a contract which secured to the Trus- 
tees the property and control of the College — a 
contract made upon valuable consideration — for 
the security and disposition of property, and on 
the faith of which real and personal property had 
been conveyed to the Institution, and therefore a 
contract, the obligation of which could not be im- 
paired without a violation of the Constitution of 
the United States. 

It held that the Statute of New Hampshire did 
impair it, and was therefore void, and rendered 
judgment restoring the property and control of 
the College to the Trustees who represented the 
Founder. The opinions of Chief Justice Marshall 
and Judge Story are masterpieces of judicial 
reasoning, and the principles laid down by them 
have ever since prevailed. In fifty-six cases de- 
cided by the Court, Acts of State Legislatures 
have been declared invalid in accordance with 
these principles, because they impaired the obli- 
gation of contracts, and it is not too much to say 
that, instead of having a disturbing or disinte- 
grating effect upon civil society, these decisions 
have done more than any other single cause to 
inculcate a reverence for the law, and for the sanc- 
tity of the right of private property which is one 
of the chief objects of free government. 

It is true that the constitutional prohibition 
against laws impairing the obligation of contracts 
does not expressly apply also to Congress. In the 

181 



THE SUPREME COURT 

Convention Mr. Gerry, a prominent delegate from 
Massachusetts, made a motion that Congress 
ought to be laid under the like prohibition, but 
found no seconder. But in the amendments 
which were proposed by Congress at its first ses- 
sion, almost as conditions on which many of the 
States had adopted it and which were quickly 
ratified, other restraints were laid upon Congress 
which had the like effect. It was expressly de- 
clared that no person shall be deprived of life, 
liberty, or property without due process of law, 
nor shall private property be taken for public 
use without just compensation, and Congress is 
bound by these prohibitions. No matter what the 
emergency, it cannot violate these fundamental 
principles of personal rights. 

The Court has held that the United States can- 
not, any more than a State, interfere with private 
rights except for legitimate governmental pur- 
poses, that they are as much bound by their con- 
tracts as are individuals, that if they repudiate 
their obligations it is as much repudiation, with 
all the wrong and reproach that term implies, as 
it would be if the repudiator had been a State, a 
Municipality, or a citizen. 

But strict and earnest as the Court has been in 
enforcing this constitutional prohibition against 
laws impairing the obligation of contracts, it has 
been ready to recognize and give full force and 
effect to the Statutes of other nations which im- 
posed no such prohibition on the law-making 
power. 

182 



THE SUPEEME COURT 

The Canada Soutliern Railway Company, under 
its Charter granted by the Dominion of Canada, 
had issued its bonds at a high rate of interest, 
and had sold them in New York to citizens of 
the United States, but getting into difficulties the 
Company devised a scheme of arrangement, which 
was enacted by the Dominion Parliament, by 
which the interest on the bonds outstanding was 
scaled down to a lower rate without the consent 
of the bondholders, a clear case of impairing the 
obligation of a contract. The bondholders ap- 
pealed to the Supreme Court, which held that the 
'' Arrangement Act " was valid in Canada, and 
bound non-assenting bondholders there by force 
of the scheme ; that as it did have that effect in 
Canada, the Courts of the United States should 
give it the same effect, even as against citizens 
of the United States whose rights accrued in the 
United States before its passage ; that there was 
no constitutional prohibition in Canada against 
the passing of laws impairing the obligation of 
contracts, and that, under these circumstances, 
the true spirit of international comity required 
that schemes of this character, legalized at home, 
should be recognized in other countries. 

The clause of the Constitution giving Congress 
the power to regulate commerce with foreign 
nations, and between the States, has been another 
fruitful source of business in the Supreme Court 
in the way of testing the validity of State laws. 

At the outset of steam navigation, the State of 
New York undertook to reward Robert Fulton for 

183 



THE SUPREME COURT 

his invention and enterprise by an Act giving 
him the monopoly of navigating by fire or steam 
all the waters within the jurisdiction of the State. 
Under this Act the Assignee of Fulton had com- 
menced running a line of boats between certain 
ports of New Jersey and New York, and obtained 
from the State Courts of New York an injunction 
to restrain the owners of an opposition line of 
boats, put on between the same ports, from enter- 
ing the waters of New York State with their boats. 
But the Supreme Court held, upon appeal, that 
the New York enactment was in conflict with the 
power of Congress to regulate commerce, and 
with its Acts in relation to commerce, and upon 
this ground vacated the injunction and established 
the right of all vessels to enter the port of New 
York under the authority of Congress. It was 
held that, by virtue of the constitutional clause 
referred to, Congress had exclusive authority to 
regulate commerce in all its forms in all the navi- 
gable waters of the United States, their bays, 
rivers, and harbors, and to make navigation free 
to all without any restraint or interference from 
any State Legislature. 

By a long series of decisions that followed 
under the commerce clause the Court, with inflex- 
ible firmness and far-reaching sagacity, estab- 
lished the absolute supremacy of the nation over 
the whole subject of commerce, navigation, travel, 
and intercourse between the States, which went 
far to strengthen the power of the Union. At 
the same time they secured to the citizens of 

184 



THE SUPEEME COURT 

every State the full enjoyment of the privileges 
and immunities of citizens in all the other States, 
and also that absolute freedom of internal trade 
throughout the country which has so vastly pro- 
moted the prosperity of the people. 

The influence of the Court in maintaining the 
faith of Treaties has been powerful and far 
reaching. By the Treaty of Peace with Great 
Britain, in 1783, it was agreed that British cred- 
itors should ' ' meet with no lawful impediments ' ' 
in the collection of their claims; and the Consti- 
tution said that Treaties, like laws, made under 
its authority, should be the supreme law of the 
land. Various attempts had been made by sev- 
eral States, before the adoption of the Constitu- 
tion, to impede or prevent the collection of such 
claims. The subject provoked bitter and exciting 
controversies, but the Court, against the conten- 
tion of John Marshall himself, then at the Bar, 
held that the Treaty was supreme, and equal in 
its effect to the Constitution itself, in overruling 
all State laws upon the subject, and that its words 
were as strong as the wit of man could devise to 
override all obstacles directed against the recov- 
ery of such debts. Of course, any such law passed 
by a State after the Treaty contrary to its terms 
would be void. 

Perhaps the most striking illustration of the 
power of the Court to declare Acts of Congress 
itself invalid, as contrary to the Constitution, was 
the celebrated Income Tax case. Congress in 
1894 had passed a General Revenue Law, certain 

185 



THE SUPEEME COURT 

sections of which imposed an Income Tax upon 
all incomes exceeding a certain amount named. 
This tax was levied indiscriminately upon all in- 
comes alike, from whatever source derived, 
whether from the rents of real estate, the income 
of invested personal property, or from earnings. 
But the Constitution had ordained that direct 
taxes should be apportioned among the several 
States according to the numbers of their respect- 
ive populations, in contradistinction to duties, 
imposts, and excises, which should be uniform 
throughout the United States. 

It was contended by those who challenged the 
validity of the law, that taxes on rent, and taxes 
on the income derived from invested personal 
property, were direct taxes within the meaning 
of the Constitution, and that instead of being 
levied uniformly, man for man, throughout the 
United States, they should have been apportioned 
among the several States according to popula- 
tion. The difference was very considerable and 
substantial. The effect of the Act, if sustained, 
would be to throw the principal burden of the 
Tax upon a few large States, in which the relative 
proportion of wealth was in excess of the relative 
proportion of population, and to exempt the other 
States proportionally from their constitutional 
share of the Tax. The opponents of the Income 
Tax also insisted that any inequality, which 
should arise from its being apportioned among 
the States according to population, was an ine- 
quality contemplated by the framers of the Con- 

186 



THE SUPEEME COURT 

stitution, and was intended to prevent an attack 
upon accumulated property by mere force of 
numbers. 

The Court, against vehement and powerful op- 
position at the Bar, and from a formidable mi- 
nority of the members of the Court itself, took this 
view, and declared the Tax to have been laid un- 
constitutionally, so far as it affected incomes 
from rents and from invested personal property. 
And as the invalid portions constituted so large a 
proportion of the whole Income Tax levied by the 
Act, that Congress could not be deemed to have 
intended to impose the rest without them, it 
further adjudged that all the Income Tax pro- 
visions of the Act, which constituted a single and 
entire scheme, must be held void. 

There were some popular protests against the 
decision, and direful prophecies that it would 
disable the nation in future emergencies from 
raising the revenue it needed, but no such results 
have yet appeared. Congress, in its subsequent 
enactments, has conformed to the decision, and 
when the war with Spain came on, and an im- 
mensely enlarged revenue was needed at once, it 
found no difficulty in imposing taxes constitu- 
tionally and so successfully that, the year after 
the war closed, the Treasury was found to be 
burdened with so great a surplus that the entire 
body of war taxes had to be repealed at once. 

The same case contains a fine illustration of 
the power of the Court to protect the States in 
the exercise of their legitimate power to manage 

187 



THE SUPREME COURT 

their own affairs from interference by the Fed- 
eral Government. The Income Tax was levied 
also upon income derived from the interest npon 
bonds issued by Municipal Corporations, which 
were but civil divisions of the States, and the 
Court held that as a tax upon the income of 
Municipal bonds tended to cripple the power of 
the local authorities to raise money for the pur- 
poses of local government, it was not within the 
power of the Federal Government to impose it, 
any more than it would be constitutional for the 
States to impair the power of the Federal Gov- 
ernment to raise money for Federal purposes by 
taxing its bonds. 

By the adoption of the 14th Amendment, to 
meet the conditions resulting from the abolition 
of slavery at the close of the Civil War, new 
restraints were imposed upon the States, the 
consideration of which has largely occupied the 
attention of the Supreme Court. 

It provides that " No State shall make or en- 
force any law which shall abridge the privileges 
or immunities of citizens of the United States; 
nor shall any State deprive any person of life, 
liberty, or property without due process of law; 
nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the 
equal protection of the laws." 

Doubtless this amendment was primarily in- 
tended for the protection of the newly emanci- 
pated slaves, especially in the States where they 
had so long been held in bondage, but in its lan- 
guage there is no distinction of race or color, 

188 



THE SUPREME COURT 

and the Court held that it could make no such 
distinction in its application, which must be made 
alike to all cases and subjects that came within 
the scope of its language in its natural mean- 
ing. 

It must not be thought, however, from these 
numerous restraints imposed by the Constitution 
upon the power of the States, and the very con- 
siderable number of cases (exceeding two hundred 
in all) in which the Supreme Court has pro- 
nounced their Statutes invalid, that the Court is 
biassed against the States, or inclined unduly to 
enforce the limits imposed upon them. On the 
contrary, it has been quite as jealous and careful 
to uphold and maintain the reserved rights of the 
States in all matters of local and domestic con- 
cern, and to protect them from violation by the 
Federal Government, as it has been to maintain 
the exclusive province of Congress in national 
concerns against intrusion by the State Legisla- 
tures. 

It has endeavored, with success, to maintain 
the just and exact balance of power between them 
as prescribed by the Constitution. As against the 
two hundred cases in which State laws have been 
invalidated by its judgments, vastly more numer- 
ous cases will be found, in its reports, in which 
State laws have been maintained by it against 
attack on the ground that they involved a violation 
of the Federal restraints. If, then, it be asked — 
why has it only pronounced twenty-one Acts of 
Congress invalid on constitutional grounds, while 

189 



THE SUPREME COURT 

two hundred State laws have been condemned? 
the answer is that there are forty-five States and 
only one Congress, and that the members and 
Committees of Congress are much more familiar 
with the Federal Constitution than those of a 
State Legislature, who naturally look first to that 
of their own State. It is notable, too, that the 
legislators of some States must be much more 
studious of the Federal Constitution than others, 
for while Louisiana, which became a State in 1812, 
and from its French origin has retained the civil 
law instead of the common law, has had twenty 
of its laws pronounced invalid for violation of the 
Constitution, Massachusetts, one of the original 
thirteen States, has only suffered twice in this 
.way in her whole history. 

Congress is, of course, in the first instance the 
judge of the constitutionality of its own Acts, and 
its members being mostly lawyers, are familiar 
with the letter and spirit of the Constitution. 
The cardinal and wholesome rule of the Court has 
been, not to pronounce either a State or Federal 
Law invalid on constitutional grounds unless the 
violation is clearly established, that the presump- 
tion is in favor of the validity of a Statute, and 
that this continues until the contrary is plainly 
demonstrated. 

The Supreme Court has felt that one branch 
of the Government cannot encroach on the domain 
of another without danger, and that the safety of 
our institutions depends in no small degree on a 
strict observance of this salutary rule. It speaks 

190 



THE SUPREME COURT 

volumes for tlie wisdom and caution of the Court 
which is vested with this remarkable and fascinat- 
ing power, that in so great a mass of State legis- 
lation, some of it crude and undigested, consist- 
ing of thousands of volumes, it has not found it 
necessary to exercise the power much more fre- 
quently. 

It has been a source of frequent wonder to 
foreign observers that a written Constitution, 
which was framed in the 18th century for thir- 
teen feeble States, with three millions of people 
of substantially uniform wealth or poverty, scat- 
tered along the Atlantic seaboard, and for whose 
government it was regarded as a precarious ex- 
periment, should be found to answer as well in the 
20th century for the needs of a great nation of 
eighty millions in forty-five States, occupying the 
breadth of the Continent, with gigantic accumula- 
tions of individual and corporate property, with 
conflicting interests and sentiments, and wide 
differences of social condition. 

There was much debate in the discussions which 
resulted in the adoption of the Constitution, 
whether the Government which it called into being 
could reach and control even a people that was 
expected to occupy the territory which the Treaty 
of Peace of 1783 secured to the United States, 
which extended only from the Atlantic to the 
Mississippi River, and from the lakes to the 
northern boundary of Florida. Since that time 
our territory has expanded to more than four 
times its original area, and now embraces insular 

191 



THE SUPREME COURT 

possessions of vast extent, at enormous distance 
from the seat of Government and half way round 
the globe. 

The fundamental difficulties of time and space 
have been overcome by the triumphs of steam and 
electricity, wholly unforeseen and unexpected in 
1787, but which now, in the case of the United 
States and Great Britain alike, have rendered 
possible the administration of Government from 
London or from Washington on any portion of 
the earth's surface. At the time of the adoption 
of our Constitution it took about as long to travel 
the length or breadth of the then United States 
as it does now to go from New York to Manila, 
or from London to Pekin, and orders of either 
Government which then would have taken months 
to transmit, now reach their destination so as to 
be put in execution at the other end of the world 
in a few hours, and sometimes in a few min- 
utes. 

But in our case, we can account for the fact 
that a written Constitution, instead of being torn 
asunder and left by the way as the Nation ex- 
panded, as new and wholly unexpected conditions 
arose, has grown with the growth of the Nation, 
like the hide of an animal from its birth to its 
maturity, so that it still embraces and covers the 
whole of our vast national life. We owe it, first, 
to the wisdom of its framers, who inserted in it 
only fundamental rules and principles, generally 
and briefly expressed, leaving it always to Con- 
gress to fill in and provide for all details; and 

192 



THE SUPREME COURT 

secondly, to the vigorous and masterly manner in 
which the Supreme Court has exercised its essen- 
tial and lawful function of construction. By this 
it has applied the whole instrument and each of 
its parts to new conditions as they arose, and 
has developed and strongly asserted the inherent 
powers of sovereignty intended to be vested in 
the Government of the United States, and neces- 
sarily resulting from their existence as a Nation. 
It was our happy fortune that for thirty-four 
years, in that critical period of our history which 
was to determine whether we were to be a great 
and powerful Nation, adequate for all the needs 
of a first-class Power in the world, or only a league 
of States like the old Confederation, we had the 
benefit of the broad and robust intellect of Chief 
Justice Marshall, to enforce the liberal principles 
of construction which the genius of Hamilton had 
laid down. 

In a single paragraph he states the whole the- 
ory upon which the Court has administered the 
Constitution, and fitted it to the growing wants 
and changing conditions of the Nation: — 



** The Government is aelmowledged by all to be one 
of enumerated powers. The principle that it can exer- 
cise only the powers granted to it is now universally ad- 
mitted. But the question respecting the extent of the 
powers actually granted is perpetually arising, and will 
probably continue to arise, as long as our system shall 
exist. The powers of the Government are limited, and 
its powers are not to be transcended. But the sound 

193 



THE SUPREME COURT 

construction of the Constitution must allow to the 
National Legislature that discretion with respect to the 
means by which the powers it confers are to be carried 
into execution, which will enable that body to perform 
the high duties assigned to it, in a manner most bene- 
ficial to the people. Let the end be legitimate, let it be 
within the scope of the Constitution, and all means which 
are appropriate, which are plainly adapted to that end, 
and which are not prohibited, but are consistent with the 
letter and spirit of the Constitution, are constitutional. ' ' 



Hamilton, in the " Federalist," declared that 
** the judiciary is beyond comparison the weakest 
of the three departments of power; that it can 
never attack with success either of the other two ; 
and that all possible care is requisite to enable 
it to defend itself against their attacks." Mon- 
tesquieu, whose works, with Blackstone's, were 
the text-books of constitutional liberty which the 
framers had constantly in hand, declared that 
" the judicial power is next to nothing." And it 
was said by another French publicist, ** It has 
no guards, palaces, or treasures, no arms but 
truth and wisdom, and no splendor but the 
justice and publicity of its judgments." But the 
Supreme Court, sustained generally by the confi- 
dence and affection of the people, has more than 
held its own. Keeping carefully within its own 
limits, it has for the most part labored to keep 
the other departments of Government within 
theirs, and the powers of the States and of the 
Nation from coming into conflict. In its hands 

194 



THE SUPREME COURT 

the judicial power has been the force of gravita- 
tion which has kept each member of our federal 
system in its proper orbit, and maintained the 
essential harmony of the whole. 

The closing scene in the Federal Convention, 
which made the Court in a way the guardian of 
the Constitution, will be ever memorable. After 
months of discussion, sometimes violent, more 
than once approaching the very brink of dissolu- 
tion, in hopeless despair of coming to any agree- 
ment, at last the grand triumph of compromise 
and mutual concession was accomplished, and the 
members met to affix their names to the instru- 
ment. Hamilton, one of the youngest, acted as 
scribe, and after Washington had signed first as 
*^ President and Deputy from Virginia," in- 
scribed on the great sheet of parchment the name 
of each State, as the delegates came forward in 
geographical order to add their names. When 
all had signed, Franklin, the oldest and most 
famous of them all, pointing to the sun embla- 
zoned behind the chair in which Washington had 
presided through the whole struggle, said to those 
about him : ' ' In the vicissitudes of hope and fear, 
I was not able to tell whether it was rising or 
setting. Now, I know that it is the rising sun." 
After more than a century's trial of their work, 
the sun which Franklin saw is not yet near the 
Zenith. Much has been done, but vastly more 
remains to be accomplished, and it is still morn- 
ing with our young Republic. 



195 



EDUCATION IN AMERICA 



EDUCATION IN AMERICA 

Inaugural Address, Augtist 1st, 1903, at the opening of the summer 
meeting at Oxford. 

IN responding to the flattering invitation of the 
Vice-Chancellor to open this Course of Sum- 
mer Lectures by an Inaugural Address, it was 
with no presumption on my part that I could say 
anything that would instruct the instructors, or 
educate the educators. He would be a vain man 
indeed who would dare to come to Oxford with 
any such idea as that. The only service that I 
can render is to open the way for those public 
spirited and self-denying teachers, who for the 
coming month will guide your studies by unfold- 
ing the rich stores of their ample learnitig. 

In casting about for a subject — if I required a 
subject for this occasion — I appealed to the tried 
experience of the Secretary, who kindly suggested 
that as the principal course of the season was to 
be upon the Middle Ages, I should take that vast 
subject for my theme. But America has no place 
in the Middle Ages. I see by the programme that 
the year 1485 is assigned as the terminus of that 
period of modified darkness, but surely there must 
be a mistake of seven years, for Columbus did not 
discover America till 1492. Then it was that 
there was a new creation — a new adjustment of 

199 



EDUCATION IN AMERICA 

the little world which we inhabit. Up to that time 
one half of the earth was still waste and void. 
It had been lost since the beginning of time. It 
was buried in that darkness which was upon the 
face of the deep; but the spirit of God moved 
upon the face of the waters, and opened the new 
hemisphere to the yearning eyes of the brave 
Genoese — and again He said Let there be Light, 
and there was Light. 

But however you may bound the Middle Ages, 
America contributes nothing to the studies and 
discussions which await you. I have carefully 
examined your programme and find not the re- 
motest allusion to the Western Hemisphere. 
From ocean to ocean, from the North Pole to the 
South, it was — except for the barbaric civiliza- 
tion of Mexico and Peru — a trackless wilderness, 
whose wild inhabitants afforded no lessons for 
modern society, unless indeed it be for that very 
minute section of it, on either side of the water, 
the mere sportsmen — who do nothing but 
sport — for they spent their whole lives through 
the entire Middle Ages in hunting, shooting, fish- 
ing and canoeing. There never was such splendid 
sport, although nothing ever came of it but more 
sport. They were indeed our leisure class, the 
only leisure class America ever had — dating back 
to an unknown antiquity, certainly before the 
Conquest, perhaps before the Flood. Possibly 
our Pilgrim and Puritan Fathers took warning 
from their example when they resolved to found 
a new civil society which should consist, like 

200 



EDUCATION IN AMERICA 

More's Utopia, of working classes only, and es- 
tablished the Commonwealth on the gospel of 
hard work, as it continues to this day. And so, 
perhaps, after all, America in the Middle Ages 
has contributed something to the sources of mod- 
ern history. 

I will therefore, if you will allow me, confine 
myself to the very modest endeavor to give you 
a mere glimpse of Education, of Universities, and 
University Extension in America, which may sug- 
gest to you their relation to the same great things 
in this country, without exposing me to the peril 
of commenting at all upon matters purely domes- 
tic here. A breeze from the West may sometimes 
be at least refreshing. 

For 130 years from the great Discovery, while 
England was advancing by leaps and bounds, 
while Erasmus and Colet and More were doing 
their momentous work for the revival of learning 
in England, while Elizabeth's marvellous reign 
was perfecting the English language and litera- 
ture, culminating in Shakespeare and Bacon — 
the whole Western Hemisphere remained undis- 
turbed and undeveloped, except as the boundless 
enterprise and ambition of Spain invaded its trop- 
ical regions, and the energetic rivalry of Jacques 
Cartier and his successors led them to explore 
the St. Lawrence as the Pioneers of New France. 

The first great act of the English Colonists 
after the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plym- 
outh in 1620, and the more important Puritan 
Emigration under Endicott and Winthrop in 

201 



EDUCATION IN AMERICA 

1628-9, was the first and a very signal example 
of University Extension — the foundation of 
Harvard College as a nursery of godly ministers 
for the service of the Colonies. The new College 
was the direct child of Cambridge: the leaders 
of the Colony were Cambridge men, with a very 
little Oxford leaven, and John Harvard, born in 
Southwark, and baptized in St. Saviour's Church, 
who gave his name, his library, and the half of 
his fortune to the new foundation, was a graduate 
of Emmanuel, the distinctly Puritan College at 
Cambridge. Its nurture and discipline were all 
drawn from Cambridge sources, and for the first 
few decades it was a small counterpart, but in 
extreme poverty and littleness, of one of the Col- 
leges of the ancient University from which it 
sprang. 

While the Colonies still formed an integral part 
of the British Empire, eight more Colleges were 
founded after the same type, of which Yale, Penn- 
sylvania, Princeton, and Columbia, still maintain 
their ascendancy. As their limited and very 
scanty endowments would permit, these all fol- 
lowed the English types exemplified in Oxford 
and Cambridge. They rendered great service 
to the Colonies and the Empire by training men, 
according to the approved classical and scholastic 
model, for the learned professions and for public 
life, and adequately answered the very moderate 
demands of the community for higher education. 

It was nearly two centuries from the founda- 
tion of Harvard in 1636, before the inadequacy 

202 



EDUCATION IN AMERICA 

of the Universities to supply the intellectual needs 
of the world, and to lead its advancing movements, 
was suspected, and another generation still before 
it was fully found out and exposed. So long as 
they were only expected to furnish for the service 
of the nation the necessary supply of lawyers, 
doctors and ministers, of teachers, scholars and 
public men, and to lead and promote the growth 
of its literature, the old routine, the old curricu- 
lum of the Colleges and Universities embracing 
Latin, Greek and Mathematics, with a little philos- 
ophy, metaphysics and history, were supposed to 
constitute the essential elements of the higher 
education which had sufficed for many genera- 
tions. 

But a new era was at hand. Probably there 
never has been such a revolution in social and 
civil life, as was produced by the application of 
steam and electricity to the practical use and serv- 
ice of man, which began in the lifetime of men 
standing here to-night, and ushered in an epoch 
of material development and progress such as the 
world never witnessed before, and which has by 
no means reached its culmination yet. The growth 
of the population of the United States from ten 
millions to eighty millions, the reduction of a 
virgin Continent to their use, the creation of a 
vast system of transportation by railroads that 
occupied every corner and reached every town in 
the country, the adaptation of all the applied arts 
to the construction, equipment and decoration of 
public and private buildings, the rapid advance 

203 



EDUCATION IN AMERICA 

of science, the multiplication of inventions, the 
unparalleled growth of manufactures, and the 
consequent extension of commerce and trade, — 
all combined to create a new and enlarged civiliza- 
tion, which had outgrown the old Colleges and 
Universities, and threatened to leave them out, 
or at any rate far behind. This rapid and un- 
bounded material and intellectual progress de- 
manded and employed an amount and variety of 
education and brain power, which neither their 
numbers, their resources, or their system of train- 
ing enabled the old Universities to furnish. Prob- 
ably a very small proportion of this mighty work, 
which characterized and marked the 19th Century, 
had been done or devised by the graduates of 
our old institutions of learning. While they had 
been filling the professions, the halls of legisla- 
tion, the great public offices, the chairs of the 
teachers and men of letters, the nation had looked 
for and found a great army of men of brains and 
men of action to attend to its construction, its 
transportation, its manufactures, its commerce, 
and business of every kind. 

It was found then that our higher education 
must be adapted to this startling and violent 
change in our national life, and that if our Col- 
leges and Universities would hold their own, they 
must greatly increase their numbers, change their 
methods, and assume new and closer relations 
with the people whom they still aspired to instruct 
and lead. 

In the first place their numbers were multiplied. 
204 



EDUCATION IN AMERICA 

At the beginning of the century there were only 
twenty-six Colleges and Universities in the whole 
territory of the United States, and many of these 
were in an infant and undeveloped state. They 
are now numbered literally by hundreds, bringing 
the higher education home to the people every- 
where, many of them richly endowed, most of 
them furnishing to the youth of the surrounding 
community an adequate and varied training, 
adapted to qualify them for business and for any 
public or private duty to which they may be called, 
although it may be far below the standard 
now set by Harvard or Columbia, Yale or Prince- 
ton. 

These new Colleges were not all on the same 
model, but afforded a wide choice of courses of 
study, to suit the varied necessities of a greatly 
diversified community. 

With the exception of a few of the older States 
which were already well provided with them by 
private means, each State in the Union has, by 
the use of public funds and lands, created a State 
University ; — and it has been the laudable ambi- 
tion of several of our multi-millionaires to create 
Universities by the generous application of por- 
tions of their vast fortunes. It has been interest- 
ing to see how by this means powerful and most 
useful institutions of learning could be created all 
at once as it were. I mean of course in a very 
few years. Of these, the University of Chicago, 
founded in 1892, endowed chiefly by the generosity 
of one man, now numbering over 3,000 students, 

205 



EDUCATION IN AMERICA 

and with an equipment approximating to that of 
its oldest sisters, is the leading example and com- 
pares favorably with the best. 

The origin and foundation of the Stanford Uni- 
versity, which owes its entire endowment to the 
lavish generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Stanford, is 
full of pathetic interest. Travelling in Europe 
they had the unspeakable misfortune to lose their 
only child, a youth of great promise, Leland Stan- 
ford, junior. Returning to America they consid- 
ered how they might best perpetuate his beloved 
memory, and conceived the noble idea of creating 
a great University that should bear his name to 
a distant posterity. They were not much versed 
in University traditions, and had no special knowl- 
edge as to how to create an institution of learning. 
But they cherished and fostered the happy idea 
that had come to them. They consulted the best 
experts that could be found ; — ^ they visited Har- 
vard and Yale and studied their history and meth- 
ods, estimated the cost and value of their entire 
plants, and concluded that by an original invest- 
ment of five million dollars, and a further five 
millions for equipment and maintenance, they 
might bring into existence a school of learning 
that should rank with the best, and be worthy of 
their highly honorable purpose. 

They put their noble design into immediate 
execution, and on a splendid estate in one of the 
most beautiful regions of California, erected 
buildings that would be quite worthy of Oxford 
or of Cambridge, and in a very few years the 

206 



EDUCATION IN AMERICA 

Stanford University took its place among the 
valuable seats of learning in the United States, 
richly endowed and equipped, commanding the 
services of distinguished professors and instruc- 
tors, and thronged with many hundreds of stu- 
dents. Not only has it received the liberal 
amounts originally designed, but Mrs. Stanford 
surviving her husband has actually devoted to it 
the whole of their vast fortune, and thus they have 
indeed created a University which will be, a lasting 
monument not to their lost son only, but to their 
own unstinted benevolence. 

The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore is 
another magnificent instance of private endow- 
ment, and is unique in its character among Amer- 
ican Universities. It is mainly a post-graduate 
institution and embraces schools of Medicine, 
Science, and Physics, and is a nursery of 
original research, publishing from time to time 
the results of researches of professors and stu- 
dents. It has well fulfilled the hopes expressed 
for it by Mr. Huxley in his splendid address at 
its opening in 1876. 

By far the most signal advance in University 
Extension yet made in America is the latest in 
date — the creation of the Carnegie Institute of 
Research at Washington — with an endowment 
of ten million dollars, to be devoted absolutely to 
original research. Whoever believes that there 
is no more truth to be found, no new law of nature 
to be discovered, may as well join the ranks of 
those deluded ones who believe the end of the 

207 



EDUCATION IN AMERICA 

world is at hand. So long as ideas rule tke world, 
this Institute will occupy a foremost place among 
institutions of learning, and bring lasting fame to 
its generous founder. 

I ought not to pass from this part of my sub- 
ject without a reference to the source from which 
some of our oldest and most prominent Universi- 
ties, like Harvard and Yale and Columbia and 
Princeton, derive the means of their maintenance 
and development, to enable them to meet their 
ever-increasing needs, and the enlarged demands 
of the present day. They receive no aid from the 
public funds; they have been built up and sus- 
tained by private contributions; and their in- 
creased means of usefulness are chiefly due to 
the loyalty and gratitude and generous enthusi- 
asm of their own graduates and their friends — 
which are found to be an unfailing support. It 
has come to be a common saying that no rich grad- 
uate can live or die without giving something to 
his University. 

It goes without saying also that technical, pro- 
fessional, and trade schools of great importance 
and value, and in considerable numbers hold a 
high place among our modern educational estab- 
lishments. 

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
stands at the head of the whole system of tech- 
nical education in the United States. It is pri- 
marily a school of industrial science. At the same 
time it finds room for the humaner studies. Mr. 
Mark, whose essay on ** Education and Industry 

208 



EDUCATION IN AMERICA 

in the United States " has been published by the 
Board of Education, says of it : — 

'* Over and above the engineering courses of 
various kinds, there are courses in architecture, 
chemistry, biology, physics, geology, and there 
is a general course for those students who wish 
to secure an education based upon scientific study 
and experiment, but including a larger amount of 
philosophical study in history, economics, lan- 
guage, and literature, than would be consistent 
with the technical requirements of other courses." 

Lord Bacon says that every man owes a debt 
to his profession, and many of these technical, 
commercial and professional schools in America 
owe their high character, their great success and 
their munificent endowment to the loyalty and 
zeal of men who, without such advantages, by 
sheer force of brains and character, have suc- 
ceeded in their various callings. Every man is 
naturally proud of the profession, business or art, 
in which he has himself succeeded, and it is to the 
eternal honor of many of our captains of industry 
that they manifest their gratitude by thus smooth- 
ing the footsteps to success of those who would 
follow where they have led. 

The Drexel Institute in Philadelphia, the Pratt 
Institute in Brooklyn, the Armour Institute in 
Chicago, are conspicuous examples of the gen- 
erous sympathy of successful men — with the 
struggles and necessities of those who come after 
them. 

The founders, Mr. Drexel, Mr. Pratt, and Mr. 
209 



EDUCATION IN AMERICA 

Armour were very active and prominent men of 
business. Magnificent success had crowned their 
own efforts, and each of them determined to leave 
a memorial that should bear his own name, and 
spread through a wide circle the benefits of his 
great fortune. Nothing is more natural than that 
the founders of such institutions should desire to 
attach their own names to them, and so enjoy a 
certain earthly immortality — a privilege that 
cannot fairly be denied to them. They cherished 
ideals and aspirations far nobler than the mate- 
rial success which had come to them. One couplet 
of the Psalm of Life had for them a practical 
meaning. 

Lives of great men all remind us, 
We may make our lives sublime, 

And departing leave hehind us 
Footprints on the Sands of Time. 

There are no more enduring memorials than 
these '' footprints on the sands of time." It was 
a '' footprint on the sand " that, by the aid of 
the magic touch of De Foe's genius, has immor- 
talized the name of a naked savage on a desert 
island ; and geologists tell us that the surface of 
the earth is marked with '' footprints on the 
sand " that have lasted for countless ages, and 
are to-day as distinct and clear as when they were 
first implanted. What better footprints, what no- 
bler memorial can any man leave behind him than 
to g:ive his name to one of these new creations, 
which shall carry the light of knowledge to the 
youth of distant generations ? 

210 



EDUCATION IN AMERICA 

You will perfectly well understand that our 
older Universities began as single Colleges, de- 
voted to a strictly academic course, but as time 
went on there grew up about them and under 
their government, professional schools, each with 
its own separate and special faculty, of which the 
President of the University was the head. Taking 
Harvard only as an example, it has its Schools 
of Divinity, Medicine and Law, each distinct from 
and independent of the old academic department, 
Harvard College proper. For admission to each 
of them something equivalent to a degree of Bach- 
elor of Arts already obtained is in general re- 
quired. So widespread is the repute of these 
schools that students resort to them from all parts 
of the country, bearing the Diplomas of the 
most approved Colleges — and we now hear 
that certain eminent English Jurists are 
advising their sons to go over to the Harvard 
Law School, as the best foundation for legal 
studies. 

Harvard also maintains, under the supervision 
of its Faculty of Arts and Sciences, a Scientific 
School crowded with students upon whom after 
a full course of study it confers the degree of 
Bachelor of Science. It also maintains, under the 
same supervision, a Graduate School, which is 
yearly growing in strength and importance, and 
is already one of the most interesting departments 
of the University. It provides advanced courses 
of study for the Graduates of Harvard and other 
approved colleges, and enables them to qualify 

211 



EDUCATION IN AMERICA 

for the higher degrees in Arts, Science and Phil- 
osophy. 

Thus have we endeavored to accomplish the 
first and not the least important part of our Uni- 
versity Extension, by increasing the number of 
our schools of learning, and enlarging and vary- 
ing the branches of knowledge and instruction to 
which they are generally or specially devoted. 

No adequate idea can be formed of the impor- 
tance and utility of this enlarged system of Uni- 
versities, Colleges, and Professional and Tech- 
nical Schools, without a knowledge of the broad 
and firm foundation on which they rest — the 
common schools of the United States, which from 
the beginning have been the peculiar care of the 
people. It is not too much to say in this regard 
that Education has been the chief industry of the 
nation. The Constitution of the State of New 
York declares that the Legislature must provide 
for the maintenance and support of a system of 
free Common Schools, wherein all the children 
of the State may be educated. And this is but a 
single application of the general policy, that each 
State owes to all of its children of both sexes, 
an education at the public expense, up to the point 
at which they may be able to sustain themselves 
in the struggle of life. Without this it was deemed 
that our Institutions, resting as they do upon uni- 
versal suffrage, could not be safe or enduring. 
According as the condition in life of its parents 
permits, every child may, without expense to them, 
pass through the successive grades of primary, 

212 



EDUCATION IN AMERICA 

grammar, and high schools, and be prepared not 
merely for its narrow vocation in life, but also for 
the discharge of that public duty which the pos- 
session of the suffrage involves. 

Of course only a small proportion of the chil- 
dren of the State can avail themselves of the full 
benefit of secondary education provided, and a 
much smaller percentage can advance to a Univer- 
sity training, but in the aggregate education is so 
generally diffused among the people, that the 
average laborer, mechanic, farmer or clerk, 
knows much more than enough to qualify him for 
his narrow and peculiar occupation, and can un- 
derstand, and act, with some intelligence upon the 
public questions on which he is called upon to 
vote. Upon this broad and deep foundation our 
Universities rest, out of it they have grown, and 
with it they form one entire and co-ordinated 
system, upon which a Government depending 
wholly upon the sum of public opinion of all its 
citizens may safely abide. 

It is difficult to present the simplest statement 
of the magnitude of our common school system, 
without seeming to be guilty of gross exaggera- 
tion. According to the latest available statistics, 
the whole number of pupils enrolled exceeds 
16,000,000, of whom fifteen and a half millions are 
in the primary and grammar schools, and 600,000 
in the high schools and academies. It was to 
these common schools that the nation looked, 
when the Universities failed, for the supply of 
that brain power, energy and enterprise, which 

213 



EDUCATION IN AMERICA 

the making of the nation demanded. From this 
great mass the accidents of birth, fortune and 
circumstance select the few, about 120,000 in all, 
who can avail themselves of the College and Uni- 
versity training. But the combined intellectual 
force of the country is in the Common Schools, 
and out of it by a process of natural selection 
have been eliminated the effective genius, talent, 
and faculty which the exigencies of the age re- 
quired for the expansion of modern life. To these 
in chief measure we owe the engineers, the in- 
ventors, the mechanicians, the practical scientists, 
who have directed our material development. 

In the same way those who have read that 
fascinating book. Smiles 's " Lives of British 
Engineers " must have been struck with the fact 
that men who did so much for the making of Eng- 
land, for the most part enjoyed but little of the 
advantages of the higher education, but sprang 
from the people, and seemed by the mere force 
of natural faculty, to educate themselves for their 
great and responsible work. But, school or no 
school, college or no college, Genius will work its 
way to the front. 

A single word more about our common schools, 
to me always a fascinating subject. Of the teach- 
ers whose numbers amount to about half a million, 
it is safe to say that much more than two-thirds 
are women — who here find a field of usefulness 
and honor, which lies at the foundation of our 
national prosperity and distinction. By general 
consent, the conscience, the sympathy and the 

214 



EDUCATION IN AMEEICA 

superior patience of women are deemed to qual- 
ify them in the highest degree for the wise and 
tactful instruction of the youth of both sexes. 
At any rate* with us their general employment as 
teachers has proved a complete success. 

I freely acknowledge my great obligations to 
the accomplished and faithful women who taught 
in the common schools of Massachusetts which it 
was my good fortune to attend. But since that 
remote day the scientific training of women in 
the fine art of teaching has advanced in a sort of 
arithmetical progression in normal schools, in 
colleges for women which fairly rival in dignity 
and equipment the best colleges for men, and in 
such institutions as the Normal College for 
Women in the City of New York. So that 
to-day great numbers of women, thoroughly qual- 
ified for the service of the State in the common 
schools and even in higher education, are to be 
found in all parts of the Union, and they exercise 
a wide-spread and powerful influence in elevating, 
refining and humanizing the youth of the Nation. 

But however much we may multiply the number 
of our seats of learning, we cannot adapt them 
to the demands and exigencies of modern life, 
without a wide and radical departure from the 
ancient curriculum, which aimed only at qualify- 
ing youth to prepare for certain limited profes- 
sions, or to take part in the administration of 
public affairs. Whatever special calling a man is 
to follow after leaving the University, he ought 
to start with a generous and liberal education 

215 



EDUCATION IN AMERICA 

such as every gentleman should have. But if we 
want our Universities to fill the full measure of 
their usefulness in the grand action of the world 
of to-day, and to be responsible for the leaders 
in such great occupations as those of the Engi- 
neer, the Architect, the Manufacturer, the Mer- 
chant, the Banker, the Railroad President, the 
Journalist, the man of Science, and those who 
apply science to the useful arts on the grand scale 
upon which those callings are now pursued, can- 
not some system be evolved on a broader scale 
than that which prevailed in all the Universities 
before this tremendous expansion of modern life 
began? Can we not attain the desired object of 
a liberal education upon which we insist for them 
all, without binding them all down to that system 
of training which once sufficed for candidates for 
the older professions, for public service and for 
the cultivated life of the leisure class? Cannot 
a scheme be devised which will enable every man 
who enters the University, to get the most out 
of himself, to begin to prepare for the life occu- 
pation for which he is best fitted, and to serve the 
community by the best exercise of the faculties 
with which he is by nature endowed? 

These questions have been answered in the 
United States by the adoption of the second form 
of University Extension to which I have referred, 
the broadening and expansion of the courses of 
instruction, and by the introduction of the open 
door for the human mind into the University 
curriculum. "What is known as the elective sys- 

216 



EDUCATION IN AMERICA 

tern, which was practically unknown fifty years 
ago, has now, against great opposition, and in 
the face of inveterate prejudice, been steadily 
gaining ground, and promises to prevail in our 
principal seats of learning. President Eliot, who 
is well entitled to be called the author of this 
system in the United States, explains it thus: — 

'* The state of society at large under freedom 
is perfectly illustrated by the condition of things 
in a University, where the choice of studies is 
free and every student is protected and encour- 
aged in developing to the utmost his own gifts 
and powers. In Harvard University for example, 
thousands of students enjoy an almost complete 
liberty in the selection of their studies, each man 
being encouraged to select those subjects in which 
he most easily excels and consequently finds most 
enjoyment and most profit." 

It is not, however, to be supposed that because 
this wide liberty of choice is allowed to the indi- 
vidual student a less amount of work is required 
of him; on the contrary, a full and equivalent 
measure of study is prescribed and exacted as 
under the old system, and the same degree is 
given for both. 

I would not undertake to judge how far such 
a system could be adopted with wisdom or suc- 
cess, under the totally different social conditions 
which prevail here, but a glance at the programme 
of this Eleventh Summer Meeting prepared by 
the Delegacy for the extension of teaching would 
seem to show that it has already made consider- 

217 



EDUCATION IN AMERICA 

able progress, and I believe that at Oxford there 
is practical freedom of choice for each student, 
without regard, of course, to degrees or honors. 

You must not suspect for one moment that 
Harvard, or any of the other American Univer- 
sities which have adopted the elective system, are 
being converted into Technical Schools or Com- 
mercial Colleges. Far distant be the day when 
the first step in that direction shall be taken. On 
the contrary, they adhere rigidly in their academ- 
ical course, to the orthodox theory, that special 
study for professional or business life should be 
postponed, till a broad and general education has 
developed the faculties and character, and that 
only upon such a foundation can education in 
specialties safely rest. But many men have many 
gifts and different faculties. They are not all run 
in one mould, or all capable of making the most 
of themselves by studying the same things. The 
old classical course is still always open to all who 
desire to follow it, and is maintained in a high 
degree of excellence. No preferential tariff is 
imposed on the humaner courses, an equal amount 
of duty and performance is exacted from the 
others ; — and the modern languages, natural his- 
tory, science and the many other studies that have 
been added to the curriculum, are accepted only 
as equivalents and substitutes for the more an- 
cient requirements. 

You are too familiar with the other forms of 
University Extension in which the United States 
have faithfully followed the lead of Oxford 

218 



EDUCATION IN AMERICA 

and Cambridge, to require me to enlarge upon 
them. 

Chautauqua, with its 10,000 students; — the 
fourth quarter or the summer term at the Uni- 
versity of Chicago, where academic work goes 
right on throughout the year (48 weeks), like any 
other business, drawing students and professors 
from nearly all the other American Universities ; 
the Harvard and Columbia Summer Schools, each 
gathering hundreds of students from all parts of 
the United States and from foreign lands; the 
splendid and effective work done by the Exten- 
sion Society of Philadelphia ; — are but examples 
and illustrations of what is going on for the pro- 
motion of higher education in many parts of the 
country. 

Among them all the Chautauqua summer as- 
semblage has done more than any other to stimu- 
late and satisfy the desire for knowledge, and an 
earnest purpose to acquire something like a Uni- 
versity education, among those to whom fortune 
denied a regular college training. You should 
read Mr. Herbert B. Adams's account, of which 
I can only give you an abstract. It is really a 
University itself in session for the summer 
months, with schools of English language and 
literature, of modern languages, of classical lan«- 
guages, of mathematics and science, of pedagogy, 
of religious teaching, of music and the fine arts, 
of expression, of physical education, of domestic 
science, and of practical arts, instructed by 
learned professors, and by volunteers from the 

219 



EDUCATION IN AMERICA 

educated men and women of the land, and at- 
tended by thousands from every State and from 
foreign parts. It is really the pioneer of summer 
schools, having held its regular sessions for 
nearly thirty years, and has constantly increased 
in the extent and power of its influence. It lays 
out courses of home study and reading for four 
years. " Work begun under competent direction 
at Chautauqua, may be continued, at home, by 
correspondence with the head of the ' school ' 
throughout the year." In very rare cases, after 
very searching tests and examinations, such work 
may be rewarded by the degree of Bachelor of 
Arts or Bachelor of Science, which the Regents 
of the University, the highest educational author- 
ity of the State of New York, are empowered to 
confer. The number of local reading circles in 
all parts of the country, inspired and guided 
from Chautauqua in the last twenty years, has 
been about 10,000, and its total enrolment of 
readers in that time has been about a quarter of 
a million. This is really bringing higher educa- 
tion home to the people in earnest. Chautauqua 
stands for hard study and high thinking, and its 
votaries are almost entirely the people of plain 
living. It is hard to measure its influence and 
power for good. President Roosevelt, who has 
long been known as a historical lecturer and 
writer, visited the assemblage in 1899, when he 
was Governor of New York. Welcomed by 10,000 
people in the great amphitheatre, he said that he 
came to preach the gospel of intelligent work, that 

220 



EDUCATION IN AMERICA 

this Chautauqua did not come by chance, that it 
was the result of years of hard work, and that 
now there is no institution more fraught with 
good to the nation than this. 

The Regents of the University of the State of 
New York have had great success in promoting 
Extension Lectures in connection with the State 
Library at Albany, with the combined aid of 
travelling libraries, travelling pictures, extension 
lectures, and State examiners, all working har- 
moniously and efficiently together under one cen- 
tral guidance at Albany. The Library is the great 
foundation of extension work in New York. To 
bring books to the people, to teach them what 
books to read and how to read them, and to bring 
the best books within their reach in connection 
with the living voice of the lecturer, is the cardinal 
object and means of stimulating the love of study, 
and the thirst for knowledge. 

In some of the States, notably in Massachusetts, 
travelling libraries are hardly needed, and but 
few Carnegie Libraries are to be found. In that 
State, which consists of 350 townships, all but 
five had, at last accounts, established each for 
itself a free public library open to the use of all 
citizens, and maintained at the public expense; 
but even in such States, what to read and how 
to read it are still very serious questions, upon 
which great light ought to be shed by the Summer 
Lectures. 

Emerson, whose name has been on all tongues 
lately in connection with the centennial of his 

221 



EDUCATION IN AMERICA 

birth, and who was one of the greatest readers of 
his time, and got more out of his reading than 
almost any other man, laid down some cardinal 
rules for his own selection of books. 

** Be sure," he says, '' to read no mean books. 
Shun the spawn of the press on the gossip of the 
hour. Do not read what you shall learn without 
asking, in the street and the train. The scholar 
knows that the famed books contain first and last 
the best thoughts and facts. In the best circles 
is the best information." 

'' The three practical rules," he says, '' which 
I have to offer are : 1. Never read any book which 
is not a year old; 2. Never read any but famed 
books; 3. Never read any but what you like." 
Thus out, of the tens of thousands of books that 
issue from the press every year, he would let the 
world first winnow for him the chaff from the 
wheat, and from the hundreds of good books that 
were so eliminated he would have each student 
select for himself what his own necessities and 
his own taste required. At all events, one of the 
greatest services which your lecturers can render, 
is to guide you in the choice of the books in your 
selected course. 

But enough of our American methods. By sub- 
stantially the same means the two countries are 
pursuing the same end of popularizing the higher 
education — of bringing it home to the people — 
and securing its benefits not only to fhose whom 
fortune or circumstance enables to spend four 
years at the University — but to that vastly 

222 



EDUCATION IN AMERICA 

greater number, whose thirst for knowledge and 
desire to make their working lives more useful 
and more happy, lead them to seek and avail 
themselves of the great privileges which the vari- 
ous methods of University Extension supply. To 
continue in after life the delights and profit of 
those studies, which the great majority of Uni- 
versity men leave behind them when they take 
their degrees — to extend them in generous meas- 
ure to the less fortunate, who have had to enter 
upon the struggle of life without them — and to 
apply the systematic methods of College training 
to many general and popular subjects, for which 
no place is found in the established curriculum, 
are the three great objects which these and other 
summer courses of lectures and reading have 
successfully attained. 

To come for these high purposes to Oxford — 
this most ancient seat of education known to the 
English race — about whose venerable Halls and 
Libraries, quadrangles and walks, cluster all the 
history, traditions and memories of many cen- 
turies of learning and study, whose very air is 
redolent of knowledge and wisdom, seems to me 
to be the highest reward and privilege of the 
earnest seeker after truth. 

One supreme advantage you enjoy, which will 
make the month you spend here more rich and 
profitable than a whole year to the ordinary 
University student. He who comes here because 
he is sent, because it is the fashion to come, be- 
cause his parents know not what else to do with 

223 



EDUCATION IN AMERICA 

him in the four years which separate youth and 
manhood, often carries away, I fear, very little to 
show for his time. But you who are in dead ear- 
nest, who come because you cannot stay away, and 
with the firm resolve to make the most of the 
opportunity, will go home bearing your sheaves 
with you, and fruits of study which will enrich 
and gladden all your days. 

Upon one thing I must especially congratulate 
you — the presence of women on an absolutely 
equal footing in attendance upon all the courses 
that are offered here. Here in conservative Ox- 
ford, and in the Summer School of Harvard which 
on other occasions equally ignores the idea of 
co-education, these men and women, earnest and 
ardent seekers after truth, sit on the same 
benches, hear the same lectures, pursue the same 
studies, and live the same lives, while this ideal 
month lasts. The young daughter of Somerville 
or Grirton, of Eadcliffe or Barnard, who is in 
search of more light and the higher life, finds here 
her full and equal opportunity. 

And this brings me to the last point I wish to 
make, that these Summer Meetings are not only 
an opening of the doors of the University to those 
who have been shut out — not merely an exchange 
of learning between different Universities and 
Colleges and Schools, but they constitute a real 
international exchange of knowledge and oppor- 
tunity. I see in this audience visitors from all 
the Continental nations, all bound on the same 
glorious errand, and what I rejoice in still more, 

224 



EDUCATION IN AMERICA 

men and women from my own country, who having 
acquired what our own Universities had to give, 
have crossed the seas for the sole purpose of 
spending a month in this congenial company, in 
these sympathetic and inspiring surroundings, in 
this Oxford, the historic and perpetual home of 
the scholar. 

It is such intercourse as this — the exchange of 
ideas, of sentiments, of hopes and aspirations, 
that will be of priceless benefit to both countries. 
Cecil Rhodes, that great Englishman, — ' ' great 
empire builder," as the Times calls him — great 
citizen of the "World as I prefer to call him, for 
so his will attests him, — with the most compre- 
hensive and exalted view of the unity of the race 
to which he belonged, — has provided that hence- 
forth forever, there shall at all times be at Oxford 
100 American youth selected from all the States, 
here to receive and enjoy, and to carry home, the 
best fruits of her nurture and instruction, which 
this ancient nursery of scholars and wise men has 
to bestow. We shall try to give you our very 
best — picked men on whom no opportunity will 
be wasted — men who will be ambitious to win 
your highest honors and rewards — and I am 
sure they will carry home with them what is of 
more value than all that, a better knowledge of 
our own country and of yours — a better under- 
standing of the relations which should exist be- 
tween them, a more generous sympathy of race 
with all who speak the English tongue. 

And now will not some rich American — there 
225 



EDUCATION IN AMERICA 

are plenty of tliem who could do it without feel- 
ing it — I could name scores of them — will not 
some broad-minded and patriotic American re- 
spond to Mr. Rhodes 's challenge, and in his life- 
time — now — straightway — make a similar and 
equal provision for one hundred young Britons — 
English, Scotch and Irish — to be maintained at 
all times at such Universities in the United States 
as they may select — the best men you can give 
us — who would study England from the Amer- 
ican point of view, while they are studying Amer- 
ica from the English point of view — and learn 
that the two peoples, in spite of their different 
methods and usages are very much alike, and in 
pursuit of the same ends and objects. 

I know both peoples pretty well now, but I do 
not know which Country, or which set of young 
men, would be the greater gainer by the exchange, 
I am sure that it would put an end for ever to 
that provincial spirit which still lingers on both 
sides, and especially among the young men of 
both sides, and would establish an endless chain 
of intercourse and sympathy, which it would be 
to the perpetual interest of both countries to 
preserve. 

What I mean by the provincial spirit which still 
exists among the young men of both countries, is 
that national prejudice born of intense love of 
country, which refuses to see or believe that any- 
thing can be done quite as well abroad as it is at 
home, and which looks with condescension and 
patronage upon the best efforts and achievements 

226 



EDUCATION IN AMERICA 

of other nations. This prejudice, though trace- 
able to a very noble motive, does certainly stand 
in the way of the highest national development, 
and I know of no cure for it so effectual as would 
be the constant interchange of students in large 
numbers, between the great Universities of the 
two nations. And if the movement lately inaugu- 
rated, for a more intimate relation and inter- 
change of ideas and students between the Univer- 
sities of English-speaking countries is to proceed 
in earnest, the Universities of the United States 
must not be left out. 

In a matter so vital and far-reaching as Edu- 
cation, on which the supreme interests of both 
nations so absolutely depend, England and the 
United States cannot stand apart. They must 
each study the methods, motives, and results of 
the systems pursued by the other, and in a spirit 
of generous rivalry strive each to promote the 
moral, intellectual and spiritual welfare of its 
own people — being sure that in so doing they 
will best advance the cause of civilization, and 
co-operate for the general welfare of mankind. 
I know of no more notable compliment ever paid 
by one to the other, than when your Board of 
Education published last year, for the informa- 
tion of the British public, in its Special Reports 
on Educational subjects, those two great volumes 
upon Education in the United States — so ex- 
pressive of the sympathy and interest of this 
kindred people in all our experiments, mistakes 
and successes — and you may be sure that all the 

227 



EDUCATION IN AMERICA 

friends of Education in America, including every 
intelligent and public spirited citizen, are watch- 
ing with equal sympathy and attention the great 
work which is being done here in the same direc- 
tion. 

If the moral courage and intellectual achieve- 
ments of the English race the world over are to 
keep in advance, or even to keep pace with its 
material and industrial progress, it can only be 
done by maintaining at its highest level the stand- 
ard of Education on both sides of the water, and 
especially by extending the higher education as 
broadly as possible among the men and women of 
both countries. And so I say let us stand to- 
gether, and learn from each other and help each 
other all that we can. 

As Mr. Lowell well said: " The measure of a 
nation's true success is the amount it has contrib- 
uted to the thought, the moral energy, the intel- 
lectual happiness, the spiritual hope and consola- 
tion of mankind.'* 

The more strenuously we contend for that suc- 
cess, the stronger and warmer will be our friend- 
ship, our sympathy, and our mutual confidence 
and respect. 



228 



SIR WALTER SCOTT 



SIR WALTER SCOTT 

Address be/ore the Edinburgh Sir Walter Scott Club, 
November 11, 1S99. 

IVTE. PEESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN : — I 
J-'J- thank you most warmly for this cordial 
greeting, but I take all the credit of it for my 
country and not for myself. Truly your country 
and mine are connected by bonds of sympathy 
which were never stronger and closer than at this 
very hour. When Dandie Dinmont had listened 
to the reading of Mrs. Margaret Bertram's will, 
he threw himself back and gave utterance to that 
great saying: '' Blood is thicker than water." 
Little did he dream that he was giving to two 
great nations a watchword for the exchange of 
love and greetings eighty years afterwards. 

I can assure you that Lord Salisbury, in his 
generous and cordial words last night at the Lord 
Mayor's banquet, will meet with a quick and 
hearty response on the other side of the Atlantic. 
Our great poet has said that '' peace hath her vic- 
tories not less renowned than war," and this iron- 
clad friendship that now prevails between these 
two kindred nations is her last and greatest vic- 
tory. It means peace not merely between your 
country and mine, but among all the great nations 
of the earth, and it tends, by advancing civiliza- 

231 



SIR WALTER SCOTT 

tion, to promote the prosperity and welfare not of 
the Anglo-Saxon race alone, but of the whole 
human race. 

Now, it must be said that Americans and Scotch- 
men in particular have a great deal in common. 
Even in those lighter personal characteristics 
which sometimes amuse our common critics, they 
are very much alike. Our national habit, for I 
confess it is a fixed habit, of making ourselves at 
home wherever we go, must have been inherited 
from some remote Scottish progenitor, for I as- 
sure you that your people come over and settle 
down upon us and make the very fat of our land 
their own. They celebrate the birthday of your 
patron saint in America with far more gusto than 
you have ever done at home. No doubt about that. 
And on the thirtieth of November, they convert 
our great land, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 
into another land of cakes. 

I have known more than one of these invaders 
who, landing on our shores in youth with nothing 
but sound minds and brave hearts in stalwart 
bodies, have returned in mature age to become 
the owners of lordly castles and broad domains 
of which princes and dukes might well be proud. 

There is another habit of ours which I do not 
admit, but which malicious critics ascribe to us, — 
of being very eager in the pursuit of the almighty 
dollar. Well, I have been studying the Scottish 
character somewhat since my arrival, and I am 
bold enough to ask the question whether that is 
not, after all, a feeble and respectful imitation of 

232 



SIR WALTER SCOTT 

your keen and constant pursuit of the five times 
more almighty pound. 

Although those are circumstances in which we 
are alike, there is one ruling trait more striking 
than either of these, and that is that innate mod- 
esty — that overwhelming modesty and distrust 
of ourselves, which is truly the common character- 
istic of both i^eoples, and which always puts us in 
a pious frame of mind and leads us to unite in 
uttering that well worn prayer : ' ' Lord, help us, 
to have a good conceit of ourselves. ' ' 

But, seriously, in those essential and vital 
qualities that go to make up the national char- 
acter, we are also alike ; and we may boast and be 
proud of our mutual resemblance. I mean in that 
inborn love of independence; that claim for the 
individual to all the liberty and all the scope which 
is consistent with the general welfare ; in the pure 
spirit of the highest and noblest democracy at 
home in these islands as well as in the United 
States, and in that spirit by which we measure 
men more by their worth than by their birth. 

** The rank is but the guinea's stamp, 
The man 's the gowd for a ' that. ' ' 

And then we agree also in that love of national 
liberty; of freedom bred in the bones of every 
nation that has struggled for and achieved it. 
They all, you all, we all, worship the champions 
that have helped us win it even for centuries after 
they are turned to dust, and if liberty ever should 

233 



SIR WALTER SCOTT 

be in danger on either continent, we should invoke 
their venerated names and spirits. 

** Oh, once again to freedom's cause return 
The patriot Tell, the Bruce of Bannockburn. 
O'er the broad ocean let the summons run 
And wake to life the sword of "Washington." 

We acknowledge with gratitude the service 
which Scotchmen have rendered to us in every 
period of our national history. They helped us 
found more than one of our infant colonies ; they 
helped us to win our independence; and in your 
ancient cemetery, the monument erected to our 
great patriot, Lincoln, (the first erected to him on 
this side of the water) recalls the valor of Scot- 
tish soldiers who helped us to maintain our politi- 
cal independence ; to strike the shackles from the 
limbs of four millions of slaves, and to prove, in 
the words of our martyr President, that ' ' govern- 
ment of the people, by the people and for the 
people shall not perish from the earth." 

I have been told to-night to propose the theme 
of literature, but that entire sentiment at this 
place and in this presence centres upon the name 
and personality of one man. All the other fixed 
stars in the spacious firmament of Scottish litera- 
ture must pale a little to-night before the light of 
this central luminary. 

To an American visiting, for the first time, 
Scotland and your romantic, your picturesque, 
your beautiful city of Edinburgh, everything 

234 



SIR WALTER SCOTT 

around Mm speaks of Scott. Go where you will, 
turn in wliichever direction,- his name seems to 
sanctify and hallow everything. I have read in 
your last annual report, and to my intense amaze- 
ment, that it requires the efforts of the Society to 
induce the schoolboys of Edinburgh to read Wal- 
ter Scott's works. I can hardly believe it. No, I 
will not believe it. Why, in America he finds hun- 
dreds of thousands of readers every year. The 
press teems with new editions, and every educated 
man is supposed to be, and is really, familiar with 
his leading poems and romances. When we come 
here we do not come as strangers. He has made 
us feel at home, more at home in Edinburgh than 
in any other city of Europe. There is not any 
other city, not even Rome itself, that has become 
so familiar to Americans who have never seen it, 
than this beautiful city of yours, and all thanks 
to the marvellous descriptions of this your be- 
loved poet and novelist. 

So, when we come here, we come, as it were, as 
pilgrims to visit shrines that he has made familiar 
in story; to the haunts and homes of his heroes 
and heroines; to Arthur's Seat and Holyrood; 
to his Own professional and personal places; to 
Abbotsf ord, the sad memorial of his tragic strug- 
gle, and Dryburgh Abbey, where his sacred dust 
reposes, while his spirit still walks abroad among 
all English speaking peoples, to fill them with love 
of Scotland, its history, its scenery and its people. 

Carlyle has said, after nobly describing Scott 
as the pride of all Scotsmen, giving him credit for 

235 



SIR WALTER SCOTT 

an open soul — a wide, far reaching soul — that 
carried him out in absolute sympathy with all 
human things and peojDle ; after giving him credit 
for that wonderful and innate love of the beauty 
of nature and the power of describing it, and his 
infinite sympathy with man as well as with 
nature, he has, in one of his most acrid utterances, 
said that if literature has no other task than 
pleasantly to amuse indolent, lacguid men, why 
here in Scott was the perfection of literature. 
Well, now, for one, I must confess that every now 
and then, I am one of those indolent, languid men, 
and as I look along these tables, if I rightly study 
your characters and moods, I suspect that this is 
a great group of those indolent, languid men, who 
believe that it is not the only task, but that it is 
one of the most valuable tasks of literature to 
amuse and to entertain mankind. 

I have often thought that I would rather have 
been the author of one such book as Waverley, or 
Kenilworth, or Henry Esmond, or Romola, than 
to achieve any other kind of personal, profes- 
sional or public fame. The good that these books 
do us, the rest they give us, the enjoyment they 
yield us ardong the hundreds of millions who read 
the language in which they are written, is abso- 
lutely infinite, and the fame that the author of 
such a book wins rivals, if it does not outshine, all 
other kinds of fame. 

Look at it now ! Waverley was written in 1814, 
a memorable event in the history of British litera- 
ture; the battle of Waterloo was fought in the 

236 



SIR WALTER SCOTT 

next year, one of the great critical battles of all 
human history. Eighty-j&ve years have gone by 
since then, and which name is now dearer to man- 
kind? Which one now enjoys the wider and the 
better fame, Wellington or Walter Scott? I shall 
not answer that question, I leave every man to 
answer it for himself. 

So much has been said about Walter Scott to- 
night that I will not tell you all I wish to say 
about him. I would like to recaJJ just four points 
of his character, which are the dearest to me in it 
all — his humanity, his cleanliness, his heroic in- 
dustry and his patriotism. 

His humanity! He was the most humane of 
men, with the sunniest of souls in the soundest of 
bodies, and with a cheerful and happy tempera- 
ment which is always worth millions to its pos- 
sessor. What would not Carlyle have given for 
a share of it? He loved God and he loved man, 
and what more can you say? His heart went out 
to all his fellow men and theirs in turn came back 
to him. Everybody loved him. Even the dumb 
animals fawned at his feet, and it was this in- 
tense, everloving and glowing humanity that was 
in his heart that made him as he was in his 
day and generation, the most popular man in all 
the world. 

Well, this humanity was godliness, and it is the 
old proverb that '^ cleanliness is next to godli- 
ness." Now, to have written so much, to have 
found so many millions of readers, to have found 
his way in every family, in every land that reads 

237 



SIR WALTER SCOTT 

at all, and yet not one word in the whole, not one 
word that he, dying, would wish to erase, not one 
false suggestion, not one double meaning, not a 
single thought or suggestion that could bring a 
blush to the cheek of the most innocent and deli- 
cate reader. This ought not to be high praise, but 
it is high praise when you recall some modern 
novels, not French only, but some English, which 
have brought fame and profit to their authors, 
which find their way into every family upon the 
plea that everybody reads them, catering to the 
morbid passion for mental and nervous stimulus, 
and which present to the minds of our young 
people scenes and incidents which men and women 
of the world cannot read without a shudder. 

I am happy to believe that there is a reaction 
from the modern poison; that there is a return 
to a better state of feeling. Lead the minds of our 
young people back to the more wholesome diet, 
such as Scott and Thackeray and Dickens and 
George Eliot provide, and I recognize, in the 
work of this Society, a step in that direction. It 
is not in vain that you have taken up such a work 
as that. Literature ought not to contain such 
poison as I have referred to, and, thanks to such 
men as Scott, Thackeray and Dickens, and such 
women as George Eliot, there is ample reading 
without any resort to that. 

And then his heroic industry. Shall I say one 
word about that 1 Scotchmen and Americans have 
been brought up for so many generations upon the 
gospel of hard work that mere industry is not 

238 



SIR WALTER SCOTT 

such a venerable virtue, but in him it indicated 
that high reserve, that indomitable purpose, which 
has hardly been manifested in such force by any 
other man in all my reading. When adversity 
overwhelmed him, when great schemes that he had 
built up with so much ambition came toppling 
about his head, he never wavered. He lost not 
one jot of heart or life. He held his head erect 
and worked on, until his tireless pen dropped 
from his dying hand. Every hour was full of life 
and aspiration to the end, and he personified in his 
own action, in his own fashion, his own favorite 
maxim : 

" One crowded hour of glorious life 
Is worth an age without a name." 

And then his patriotism, noblest and proudest 
of his gifts. He loved his country with an in- 
tensity exceeding that of woman. He never tired 
of describing the glorious virtues of Scottish 
heroes, the beauties of Scottish landscape, and all 
that went to make the land of his birth heroic and 
beautiful. And so he drew the eyes and hearts 
of all men hither to admire and to love. His 
biographer says that upon the publication of the 
Lady of the Lake, swarms of English tourists 
came flocking over the borders the next summer, 
to visit the places which his magic pen had de- 
scribed. 

But that was not all. This patriotic fervor, this 
irresistible charm which mark all his writings, 

239 



SIR WALTER SCOTT 

goes a great deal deeper and further than that. 
It inspires the hearts of his young countrymen 
to imitate the heroic deeds of their ancestors 
whom he so fondly loved to describe. Wherever 
the Scottish soldier goes, wherever you find him 
in the hour of trial, in the trenches, in the hos- 
pital, or in the camp, you find in many a knap- 
sack stray copies of Marmion, Rob Roy, or other 
of his charming works, for the solace and enter- 
tainment and inspiration of the soldier who has 
gone forth to battle. If you hear, as you will 
hear, of young soldiers of Scotland doing great 
deeds and dying heroes' deaths, I am sure you 
will give some of the credit to this great wizard 
of the North, who has inspired them with his own 
patriotic fervor. 

Scott stands midway between Burns and Car- 
lyle in your literature. How fortunate the coun- 
try, the little country, that has produced, in a 
single century, three such wonders as these. 
Where will you find the like ? Search through his- 
tory, ancient and modern — where will you find 
three such wonderful boasts of literature as 
Burns, Scott and Carlyle 1 The emerald, the ruby 
and the diamond, the three great jewels in Scot- 
land's crown. And in their name I give you the 
toast of Literature, and I am proud and happy to 
couple with it the name of one who has done, I 
think, as much as any other living man to keep the 
well of English pure and undefiled. I give you the 
toast of Literature and Mr. Andrew Lang. 



240 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

Address at the Centenary of the British and Foreign Bible Society, 
London, May, 1904. 

MY Lord Northampton, Ladies and Gentle- 
men : — I consider it a very great honor to 
be privileged to appear before this great audience 
assembled from all the Christian nations to-night, 
to represent first, my country, and secondly, the 
American Bible Society, as one of its delegates. 

I shall take as my text for the brief discourse 
that I am privileged to address to you, a direct 
message which I have received by cable from the 
President of the United States. 

The President, no matter what heavy responsi- 
bility, no matter what serious labors may rest 
upon him, is always ready with a good work 
and a helping hand for every great and worthy 
cause. The President cables: '' Convey to the 
British and Foreign Bible Society my hearty con- 
gratulations on their Centenary and my earnest 
wish for the continued success of their good work. 
Theodore Roosevelt." 

My Lord Northampton, for the American Bible 
Society and in its name, I have the honor, in 
common with my fellow-delegate, the Eeverend 
Dr. Ingersoll, to submit this address to the Presi- 
dent, Vice-Presidents and officers of your Society : 

243 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

'' Gentlemen and Brethren, we, the President, 
Vice-Presidents, Officers and Managers of the 
American Bible Society, in accepting the honor of 
an invitation to the celebration of the One Hun- 
dredth Anniversary of your Society, and in join- 
ing the great number of those who congratulate 
you on the honorable and auspicious accomplish- 
ment of your first centenary, do hereby pay our 
hearty tribute of gratitude, admiration and rever- 
ence to our elder sister. 

'^ The organizers of our Society acknowledge, 
with deep gratitude, the generous gift of money 
and of sympathy with which the British and For- 
eign Bible Society brightened our first years. In 
all our career, we have been stimulated by your 
faithful example. 

' ' In recognition of the wonderful achievements 
made possible by your steady fortitude and noble 
devotion in all lands, it has pleased us to designate 
as our official representatives to your celebration 
the Reverend Edward Payson Ingersoll, D. D., 
Corresponding Secretary, and the Honorable 
Joseph H. Choate, the Ambassador at the Court 
of St. James to bear personal testimony at your 
Centenary of our fraternal regard and steadfast 
confidence. We who send these greetings and 
salutations, recognizing your high aims and noble 
endeavors in every domain of your activity, com- 
mend you to Him whose we are and whom we 
serve, praying that He may continue to be your 
light and guide until the Word shall be fulfilled. 
' They shall teach no more every man his neigh- 

244 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

bor and every man liis brother, saying ^' Know 
the Lord," for they shall know Me from the least 
of them and unto the greatest of them.' 

*' Adopted by the Board of Managers of the 
American Bible Society February 4, 1904. 

" Daniel Coit Gilman, President. 

^' William Ingkaham Haven^ Secretary." 

And now let me say that the President, in his 
hearty message of good cheer, and the American 
Bible Society in their more formal address, have 
but spoken the sentiments of the entire people 
of the United States, who have justified from the 
beginning the cordial and hearty support which 
you have given to the American Bible Society for 
the last eighty-six years. 

I was going to say that the American Bible 
Society is your own offspring, but, inasmuch as 
you yourselves were only twelve years old when 
it came into being, I must regard you as our elder 
sister, and our elder sister it was who showed us 
the way, who encouraged us in our small begin- 
ning, who sent us a grant of five hundred pounds 
from her treasury to start with, which was a tre- 
mendous help in those days, and who has ever 
since been leading the way which we have been 
glad to follow. 

Let me say one word more about the American 
Bible Society. Like yourselves, it has had its 
struggles and its triumphs. Like yourselves, it 
has an immense work on hand. T;ike j^ourselves, 
it finds the demand far greater than the supply 

245 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

that it is able to furnish. It is no small under- 
taking to keep eighty millions of people supplied 
with a Bible in every house, and that has been 
their ambition. And then they have to meet about 
eight hundred thousand immigrants from foreign 
lands every year as they land in New York and 
other parts of the country, and I am sorry to say 
that they are not always provided with Bibles, and 
the Society has to take care of them. But with all 
that, I think its records will show, as in the past, 
that now and in the future, it can be relied on to 
do almost as much for foreign lands as it does 
for its own people at home. 

Now this great harvest which this centenary 
demonstrates, is only, after all, what has grown 
up from the little seed which, nearly three hundred 
years ago, your fathers and our fathers united 
in planting in the distant wilderness. When the 
Pilgrim Fathers embarked in the Mayflower in 
1620, and when, eight years afterwards, the great 
Puritan immigration from old England to New 
England set in, they carried with them, our 
fathers and the brothers of your fathers, carried 
with them, as their best possession — in fact, the 
only one which was to have a lasting value — 
King James 's Bible, upon which their infant State 
was built. It was their only book — their only 
readable book. I have read catalogues of the 
books which some who were best off among them 
had, and the Bible was the only readable book, and 
that was readable by every man, woman and child. 
It was the ark of their covenant, and, really, they 

246 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

did find, within those sacred covers, their shelter 
from the stormy blast and their eternal home. 
Their faith was founded upon it, and having 
no other book, you can realize how there they 
stood to find, not their religion only, but their 
literature, their biographies, their voyages and 
travels, their poetry, such as no poets have ever 
since produced, and that magnificent march of 
history from the beginning, and they searched and 
found in it the golden rules of life. 

I do not know that I can more forcibly bring 
before you how completely the Bible was their one 
treasure, than by describing one of the few family 
Bibles that have come down from those days to 
ours — the only legacy that has reached the re- 
mote posterity of the family to which it belonged. 
It was read twice a day in every family by the 
head of the household, with all the members 
gathered about him, going in at Genesis and com- 
ing out at Revelations, the whole journey being 
accomplished twice every year between January 
and December. Dog's-eared? — that is a mild 
term to express its condition, for its leaves were 
absolutely worn away by the pious thumbs that 
had turned them. It was really the fact that New 
England, in its first generation, was the most 
biblical community on the face of the earth. Their 
laws, their customs, their language, their habits, 
were founded upon it, and in it they found their 
sole guide of life. 

Let me read a word from one of the greatest 
of their descendants, Phillips Brooks, that most 

247 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

noble product of New England culture, himself 
a true descendant of their blood. He said worth- 
ily of them (I could not begin to find language 
equal to his in point of expression) : *^ It never 
frightened a Puritan when you bade him stand 
still and listen to the voice of God. His closet and 
his church were full of the reverberations of the 
awful, gracious, beautiful voice for which he 
listened. He made little, too little, of sacraments 
and priests, because God was so intensely real to 
him. What should he do with lenses who stood 
thus full in the torrent of the sunshine? " 

Our New England fathers, with the Bible as the 
basis of their lives, realized that prayer of Eras- 
mus, uttered one hundred years before they found 
foothold upon Plymouth Rock, — a prayer which 
it was often dangerous to breathe in those early 
days: '' I wish the Gospels were translated into 
the languages of all people, that they might be 
read and known not only by the Scotch and the 
Irish and the English, of course, but even by the 
Turks and the Saracens. I wish that the husband- 
man may sing parts of them at his plow ; that the 
weaver may warble them at his shuttle ; that the 
traveler may, with their narration, beguile the 
weariness of the way." 

Well, our Pilgrim Fathers were exactly the kind 
of men that you might expect them to have been. 
I wish you would just imagine, for one moment, 
what our lives would be if, like them, the Bible 
were our only book. No newspapers, no weeklies, 
no magazines, no novels, no libraries, no school 

248 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

reading of any kind. I only hope that we, like 
them, would find our refuge where they so safely 
found theirs. 

In the days of their greatest poverty and dis- 
tress, they founded Harvard College, in order, as 
they said, that the supply of learned and godly 
ministers might never fail, and they gave it a 
motto which holds to this day: '' To Christ and 
the Church," and, what means the same thing, 
'' Veritas " (truth), and then they founded the 
great State of Massachusetts, which I shall not ask 
you for one moment to hear about. I can only 
say what Mr. Webster says of her : ' ' Massachu- 
setts, she needs no eulogy. There she stands; 
behold her and judge for yourselves." 

If you ask me what more has come of it, what 
other good things founded upon the Bible, besides 
Plymouth Eock and Boston, I should say that a 
very large share of the good which has been 
wrought out in America from the beginning is 
traceable to their pious efforts, that if the common 
schools have found their way from the Atlantic 
to the Pacific ; if slavery has been abolished ; if 
the whole land has been changed from a wilder- 
ness into a garden of plenty, from ocean to ocean ; 
if education has been fostered according to Ihe 
best light of each generation since then; if in- 
dustry, frugality and sobriety are the watchwords 
of the nation, as I believe them to be, I say it is 
largely due to those first emigrants, who landing 
with the EnsrlisH Bible in their hands and in their 
hearts, and assisted by men like themselves here 

249 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

in London, established themselves on the shores 
of America. 

Without detracting at all from the great part 
which has been contributed from other countries, 
we say that that little leaven has leavened the 
whole lump, and if you ask me what the signs of 
the leavening of the lump are, I point again to the 
work of the American Bible Society and its rela- 
tion to that community. It is liberally supported 
and encouraged by many ardent friends in every 
state and in every territory of the Union. I point 
to the fame and influence which it has acquired 
throughout the land. I point to the millions of 
dollars which it is gathering in for this pious 
use, and to the scores of millions of Bibles which 
it has distributed, on the principle always of the 
whole Bible for the whole world, to all but the 
poor at cost, to every one of the poor without 
money and without price. 

And now, before I sit down, I should like to 
make a claim for my country which may be a little 
surprising to this audience, and that is that one 
of the first translations from the English text of 
the whole Bible into a heathen language, was made 
in the earliest days of Massachusetts with the 
great aid that was sent over to us from London. 
There came over to us in 1639 a poor clergyman 
from Jesus College, Cambridge. There he had 
been distinguished for his studies in theology and 
for the study of languages, and when he came 
to America he made himself Busy in connection 
with that peaceful, harmless tribe of Indians who 

250 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

made their home in Massachusetts, and tried to 
teach them the word of God. After he had 
learned their language, and it took him about 
twelve years to learn, he sent over a cry for help, 
and he got a response. The same cry and the 
same response has been going on to this day: 
'' Can we to souls benighted the lamp of life 
deny? " What was the response? Why, Parlia- 
ment, consisting then only of the Commons, I am 
sorry to say, organized a society entitled '* The 
Corporation for the propagation of the gospel of 
Jesus Christ in New England." And the pre- 
amble of the act passed in connection with this 
society is a very remarkable one and shows how 
interesting was the relationship which our an- 
cestors bore to the Indians to whom they held out 
the hand of fellowship. Here it is : 

*' Whereas, the Commons of England have re- 
ceived certain intelligence by the testimonial of 
divers faithful and godly ministers in New Eng- 
land, that divers heathen natives of that country, 
through the blessing of God, upon the pious char- 
acter and pains of some godly English of this 
nation, who preached the gospel to them in their 
own Indian language, who not only of barbarous 
have become civil, but many of them, forsaking 
their accustomed charms and sorceries and other 
Satanical delusions, do now call upon the name of 
the Lord — with tears lamenting their misspent 
lives, teaching their children what they are in- 
structed in themselves, being careful to place their 
said children in godly English families and to put 

251 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

them to English schools, betaking to themselves 
but one wife and putting away the rest, and by 
their constant prayer to Almighty Grod morning 
and evening in their families, expressed to all 
appearances with much devotion and zeal of 
heart, Therefore," etc., etc. 

Therefore the Commons established this cor- 
poration to raise a fund in England for this pur- 
pose, and by their apostle John Elliot, completed, 
as early as 1663, or one hundred and forty years 
before the foundation of the British and Foreign 
Bible Society, a complete version of the Bible in 
the Algonquin tongue. Probably there is not a 
man now living who can read a word of it. Cer- 
tainly there is not a vestige of the tribe for whom 
it was written, but it is a grand monument for its 
author, and it pointed the way for this Society 
and for the American Bible Society. 

I cannot take up any more of your time. I only 
wish to ask. What is it that we are working for as 
societies'? Each for its own interest primarily, 
but, next to that, we have a greater and a further 
mission, and that is to promote and advance the 
cause of civilization, of order, of religion, of peace 
and of duty. I believe that such occasions as this 
go far in the accomplishment of that mission. 
How far, then, is it possible to make these two 
great nations policemen to keep the peace of the 
world? Some rely upon armies and on navies, 
upon armaments and gunpowder and lyddite and 
dynamite as the best guarantees of the preserva- 
tion of peace, but sometimes these things explode 

252 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

when least expected. Others rely upon the slow 
and tortuous processes of diplomacy, but diplo- 
macy sometimes fails, as we have had illustrations 
lately. 

I believe, and I think that the British and For- 
eign Bible Society and the American Bible Society 
unite in that belief, that the only sure guarantee 
of peace is the moral influence of public opinion. 
Let each nation and the people of each nation give 
their governments to understand that they are for 
peace and there will be no war. I believe that if 
these two nations which you and I represent were 
to set the example, the other Christian nations 
would follow. Nothing could withstand such a 
weight of public opinion based upon this book, 
which speaks always to the world for peace and 
good will, " Peace on earth, good will to men." 
I believe in co-operation in good work, in every 
good work possible, between the people of our two 
countries. Why should we not co-operate in all 
good work, we who have one God, one Bible, one 
language and one destiny? 



253 



ADDRESS AT DINNER GIVEN TO 

MR. CHOATE BY THE BENCH 

AND BAR OF ENGLAND 

AT LINCOLN'S INN, APRIL 14th, 1905 



ADDRESS AT DINNER GIVEN 

TO MR. CHOATE BY THE 

BENCH AND BAR OF 

ENGLAND 

AT LINCOLN"S INN, APRIL 14th, 1905 

MY Lord Chancellor, my Lords, and Gentle- 
men, — I may say brothers all, for I accept 
your presence here to-night as a signal proof that 
neither time, nor distance, nor oceans, nor con- 
tinents can weaken the ties of sympathy and fra- 
ternity between the members of our noble pro- 
fession wherever the English law has reached or 
the English tongue is spoken. On this spot, con- 
secrated for centuries — I was going to say for 
unnumbered centuries — to the study and de- 
velopment of the law, I feel that we are gathered 
to-night for a veritable professional love-feast, if 
I can judge from the kindly words of the Lord 
Chancellor and the Attorney-General and from 
your genial countenances. No profane presence 
of laymen, no troublesome affairs of clients, 
can disturb us here to-night. We are all lawyers, 
except the Judges, and they, too, are lawyers who 
have soared in ascension robes to a higher and 

257 



BENCH AND BAR OF ENGLAND 

nobler sphere. I thank you all from the bottom 
of my heart. For an American lawyer who long 
since withdrew from the arena to find himself the 
guest of the united Bench and Bar of England, 
supported by the presence of all that is illustri- 
ous and famous among them, is a position which 
only overcomes me with a sense of my own un- 
worthiness of the compliment you have paid me. 
I cannot but feel that in my person and over my 
head you desire to pay an unexampled honor to 
the great country that I represent, to its Bench 
and Bar, that daily share your labors and keep 
step with your progress, and to the great office 
that I am about to lay down. 

Let me say a single word about the altogether 
too lavish compliments that the Lord Chancellor 
has paid me in respect to my official career in 
England. My task has not been the difficult work 
of diplomacy to which he has referred. It has all, 
from the day of my arrival here until now, been 
made absolutely easy by the spirit with which I 
have been received. The two representatives of 
this great country with whom I have had to do 
at the Foreign Office — Lord Salisbury and Lord 
Lansdowne — have made my task perfectly easy, 
not only because they have always practised the 
modern diplomacy, meaning what they say and 
saying what they mean, with never a card up any 
sleeve on either side, but because in every single 
incident they have met me more than half-way in 
all that went towards conciliation, harmony, and 
union between the two countries. It was also 

258 



BENCH AND BAR OF ENGLAND 

easy for us on both sides for other reasons — be- 
cause the two great chiefs of State on either side, 
the late illustrious Queen and the present oc- 
cupant of the Throne, his not less illustrious Maj- 
esty, upon the one side, and President McKinley 
and President Roosevelt upon the other, have all 
the while been determined that the two countries 
should be friends; and, back of all that, a cir- 
cumstance which gave great force to everything 
that either has ever said, the rank and file, the 
great mass of the people on either side, were de- 
termined that nothing should happen to impair 
the friendship of the two peoples. I cannot tell 
you how much I thank you for your presence here 
to-night. I am especially proud that the chair is 
occupied by the Lord Chancellor, whose name in 
both countries is a synonym for equity and jus- 
tice. In spite of his thirty-five years at the Bar 
and his eighteen years upon the "Woolsack, he is 
the very incarnation of perennial youth. Time, 
like an ever-rolling stream, bears all its sons away, 
but the Lord Chancellor seems to stem the tide of 
time. Instead of retreating like the rest of us 
before its advancing waves, he is actually working 
his way up stream. He demonstrates what I have 
been trying to prove for the last three years, that 
the eighth decade of life is far the best, and I am 
sure he will join with me in advising you all to 
hurry up and get into it as soon as you can. He 
gave me his personal friendship immediately 
after my arrival here, which has all the time been 
growing stronger and stronger ; and, while he has 

259 



BENCH AND BAR OF ENGLAND 

been drinking at some mysterious fountain that 
always renewed his mind and his body, I can an- 
swer for it that his heart has all the time been 
growing younger and fresher and warmer. I 
must also acknowledge with gratitude the pres- 
ence of the Lord Chief Justice to-night. He, too, 
has graced my life in England with his friendship. 
His name is a household word in America. He is 
held in the highest esteem and honor ; and I only 
hope that he will yield to my repeated persuasions 
to come over and give us a chance to show how 
much we like him. 

The occasion and the Lord Chancellor's and At- 
torney-General's most kindly words, I am afraid, 
will make me a little egotistical. I must disavow 
what they ha37e so strongly pressed — my great 
prominence in the profession. I only tried always 
to keap my oath to do my duty by my client and 
the Court; but I will confess that from the begin- 
ning to the end of my forty-four years at the Bar 
I loved the profession with all the ardor and inten- 
sity that that jealous mistress the law could ever 
exact, and was always trying to pay back the debt 
which, as Lord Bacon says, we all owe to the pro- 
fession that honors us. In my youngest days I 
could not resist the attraction of those historic 
and dramatic scenes and incidents in the lives of 
the world's great advocates which everybody 
knows. Who would not have given a year's ran- 
som, a year of his life, to have heard Somers, in 
the case of the seven Bishops, in a speech of only 
five minutes, breaking the rod of the oppressor, 

260 



BENCH AND BAR OF ENGLAND 

winning the great cause, and at one bound taking 
his place, the foremost place, among the orators 
and jurists of England ; or Erskine, the greatest 
advocate anywhere and of all time, when he dared 
to brave even the mighty Mansfield's admonition 
that Lord Sandwich was not before the Court? 
* ' I know he is not before the Court, and for that 
very reason I will bring him before the Court." 
He entered the tribunal that morning an abso- 
lutely briefless barrister, and went out of the 
Court with thirty retainers in his pocket and fol- 
lowed by a crowd of solicitors engaged in a race 
of diligence to see who should reach his chambers 
first. Who would not have given a year of his 
life to have heard Webster pleading before the 
Supreme Court of the United States for the little 
college in the hills, where his intellectual life 
began, and throwing successfully round it the 
shield of that most beneficent of all constitutional 
provisions, that no State shall pass any law im- 
pairing the obligation of contracts'? 

I started in life with a belief that our profession 
in its highest walks afforded the most noble em- 
ployment in which any man could engage, and I 
am of the same opinion still. Until I became an 
Ambassador and entered the terra incognita of 
diplomacy I believed a man could be of greater 
service to his country and his race in the foremost 
ranks of the Bar than anywhere else ; and I think 
so still. To be a priest, and possibly a high priest, 
in the temple of justice, to serve at her altar and 
aid in her administration, to maintain and defend 

261 



BENCH AND BAE OF ENGLAND 

those inalienable rights of life, liberty, and prop- 
erty upon which the safety of society depends, to 
succor the oppressed and to defend the innocent, 
to maintain Constitutional rights against all viola- 
tions, whether by the Executive, by the Legisla- 
ture, by the resistless power of the Press, or, 
worst of all, by the ruthless rapacity of an un- 
bridled majority, to rescue the scapegoat and 
restore him to his proper place in the world — all 
this seemed to me to furnish a field worthy of any 
man's ambition. 

The relations between the Bench and the Bar 
of England and those of the United States are far 
more intimate and enduring than I think even you 
can suppose. I wish you could enter any of our 
Courts in America anywhere between Boston and 
San Francisco. You would find yourself on famil- 
iar ground and perfectly at home — the same law, 
the same questions, the same mode of dealing with 
them. You would find always and everywhere the 
same loyalty on the part of the Bar to the Bench 
and on the part of the Bench to the Bar. Some 
things you would miss. You would miss, I think, 
some of that dignity, some of that picturesque- 
ness, at least, which prevails in your own tribu- 
nals. Our barristers appear in plain clothes in 
Court. The Judges — some of them — wear 
gowns, but never a wig. I think it would be a 
very rash man that would propose that bold ex- 
periment to our democracy. If the Lord Chancel- 
lor had wished that our primitive and unsophisti- 
cated people should adopt that relic of antiquity 

262 



BENCH AND BAR OF ENGLAND 

and grandeur, lie should not have allowed his pre- 
decessors in his great office to tell such fearful 
stories about each other in respect to that article 
of apparel. We have read the story of Lord 
Campbell, as given in his diary annotated by his 
daughter, as to what became of Lord Erskine's 
full-bottomed wig when he ceased to be Lord 
Chancellor — that it was purchased and exported 
to the coast of Guinea in order that it might 
make an African warrior more formidable to his 
enemies on the field of battle. We have a great 
prejudice against anything that savors of over- 
awing the Court, overawing the jury ; and if any 
such terrors are to be connected with that instru- 
ment our pure democracy will never adopt it. 

Now, gentlemen, these ancient Inns of Court, 
and, above all, Westminster Hall, with its far 
more ancient and historic associations, which have 
been the nurseries and the home of the Common 
Law for ages, are very near and dear to my coun- 
trymen, and especially to my brethren of the Bar 
in America. There is nothing dearer to them. 
They flock to Westminster Hall immediately on 
their arrival here; and they wish — I wish for 
them — to acknowledge that infinite debt of grati- 
tude that we owe, that the whole world owes, to 
the Bench and Bar of England, who have been 
working out with untiring patience through whole 
centuries the principles of the common law which 
underlie alike the liberties of England and of 
America. It was the Bench and Bar of England 
in the Inns of Court and in the Courts in West- 

263 



BENCH AND BAR OF ENGLAND 

minster Hall, and more lately in the Eoyal Courts 
of Justice, that established those fundamental, 
those absolute principles that lie at the foundation 
of our common liberties. What are they? That 
there is no such thing as absolute power, that 
King, lords, and commons, President, congress, 
and people, are alike subject to the law; that be- 
fore its supreme majesty all men are equal ; that 
no man can be punished or deprived of his dearest 
or any of his rights except by the edict of the law 
pronounced by independent tribunals, who are 
themselves subject to the law; that every man's 
house is his castle, and though the winds and the 
storms may enter it, the King and the President 
cannot ; in other words, and the sublime words of 
the great Sidney, that ours, on both sides of the 
water, is ' ' a government of laws and not of men. ' * 
Indeed, we claim these venerable structures as in 
large part our own. I believe that William Rufus 
held his first Court in Westminster Hall at Whit- 
suntide, 1099. Well, when John Winthrop, of 
the Inner Temple, went over to America to found 
the State of Massachusetts in 1629, those Courts, 
that great Hall, these Inns of Court had been as 
much ours as yours for hundreds of years; so 
that you see we claim a very great interest, a 
personal and immediate, and direct right in all 
that has contributed to the growth and develop- 
ment of the law in England. You had been in 
these very Inns of Court, studying and teaching 
the law, for at least a century before Columbus 
made his great discovery, which opened the dawn 

264 



BENCH AND BAR OF ENGLAND 

of a new creation and put an end to the dark ages. 
In Magna Charta and the Petition of Right our 
colonies carried with them the germs of what has 
grown to be American law and American liberty. 
At the beginning there were no lawyers in Amer- 
ica. They had an idea of a Utopia which could 
be carried on successfully by the help of the 
clergy, without them. But we have made great 
progress since then, and our last census shows in 
America more than 100,000 lawyers. I can give 
the exact number — 104,700, of whom 1,010 are 
women. Now, I am afraid the Lord Chancellor, 
who is so conservative, would hesitate a little at 
the admission to the Bar of 1,010 women; but I 
assure him that if he will go over there and hold 
a Court in which they may be heard, and if you, 
gentlemen of the Bar, will go over there, and take 
retainers with them or against them, you will be 
so fascinated that you will embrace every oppor- 
tunity afterwards of repeating the experiment. 

Now, our Declaration of Independence, which 
the Lord Chancellor seems to have a little doubt 
about, our Constitution of the United States, 
which he has no doubt about, are only the natural 
sequence of Magna Charta and the Petition of 
Right. Our Revolution only followed suit after 
your Revolution of a hundred years before. "We 
stood for the same principles, we fought the same 
fight, we gained the same victory. Our Jefferson 
and Franklin and their associates in declaring 
independence, our Washington and Hamilton and 
their associates in organizing the Government of 

265 



BENCH AND BAR OF ENGLAND 

the United States and setting its wheels in motion, 
were only doing for ns what Somers and his great 
associates had done for you in 1688. Now you 
will not be surprised that in these fateful events, 
which meant so much for the welfare of the 
world, and in which the lawyers took a very great 
part, these Inns of Court contributed their quota; 
and that there were five of the signers of the 
Declaration of Independence who had been bred 
to the law in the Middle Temple, and three of the 
framers and signers of the Constitution of the 
United States who had been bred in the same Inn, 
and one of them was afterwards nominated by 
President Washington as Chief Justice of the 
United States. So you may well imagine with 
what delight I was informed a day or two ago that 
I had been made a Bencher of the great American 
Inn, the Middle Temple. I do not think any Amer- 
ican lawyer has ever had such a success as that. 
They may have won more cases, they may have 
got more fees, but they never have been made 
Benchers of any of the Inns of Court. In fact, 
this incident, so touching to my heart, has almost 
changed my mind. I have a great mind not to 
go back to America, but to remain here and re- 
sume the practice of the law where those five 
signers of the Declaration and those three sign- 
ers of the Constitution left off 125 years ago. 
I should like to cross swords and join conclusions 
with some of these distinguished Benchers of the 
four Inns of Court who grace these tables to- 
night. I do not know what my brethren of the 

266 



BENCH AND BAR OF ENGLAND 

Bar at home would say, but I think they would 
say, ' ' If you have achieved such a success as that 
make the most and the best of it at once." 

Well, there is no difference between American 
law and liberty and English law and liberty. I 
should like to mention two responsibilities which 
have been thrown upon the Bench and the Bar 
in America in a greater degree than here. One 
is that on the Bar the whole burden of legislation 
from the beginning has been thrown. In a coun- 
try like ours, where the executive and the legisla- 
tive departments are kept asunder by impassable 
constitutional barriers, it is justly considered, and 
has always been considered, that, for making and 
amending and expanding the law, the men best 
qualified are those who are already skilled in the 
law, and so from the beginning the majority of 
lawyers in Congress and in each one of the Legis- 
latures of our forty-five States has been uni- 
formly maintained. 

And then upon the Bench there has been thrown 
another very great responsibility, growing out of 
our peculiar form of government, exercised by all 
the Judges and culminating in the unique power 
of the Supreme Court, to which the Lord Chan- 
cellor has referred, to set aside, to declare null 
and void, any Act of any Legislature or of Con- 
gress itself which comes in conflict with the pro- 
visions of the Constitution. I believe it has been 
exercised by that Court about twenty-four times 
in the case of Acts of Congress, and something 
like two hundred times in the case of State enact- 

267 



BENCH AND BAR OF ENGLAND 

ments, and it has been the balance wheel upon 
which our complicated and dual system of gov- 
ernment has turned. There we have over every 
foot of the soil of our great territory and over 
every living being within it two distinct and in- 
dependent Governments, each supreme and abso- 
lute in its own sphere and working in absolute 
harmony because of this harmonizing function of 
our great tribunal. 

I said a little while ago that perhaps you ex- 
celled us in your tribunals in dignity, in the con- 
trol which the Court exercises, and ought to exer- 
cise, over the Bar. It is all illustrated by a single 
difference of phraseology. In America we say 
that the counsel try the case and that the Judge 
hears and decides; but, if I understand your 
common parlance here, the Judge tries the case 
and the counsel hear and obey. That is where 
we have got a good deal to learn from you. It 
is exactly as it should be. But do not believe for 
a moment that there is any abdication on the part 
of our tribunals, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 
of the functions and authority that belong to the 
judicial office. If anybody should go over there 
and try it on he would find that he was very much 
mistaken indeed. There is an example set by that 
august tribunal to which I have referred. No 
Court could be looked up to with so much rever- 
ence ; no Court, I think, receives the homage and 
deference, not only of the community, but of the 
Bar, in such a signal way as that; and the in- 
fluence of its example is widely extended, and 

268 



BENCH AND BAR OF ENGLAND 

other tribunals follow as they may. Now, gentle- 
men, I must not occupy any more of your time. 
I cannot express the overflowing feelings that 
are welling up from my heart at this moment 
when I find myself thus honored by the most 
illustrious men of the Bench and Bar in Eng- 
land, and that such words of affection for me 
should have been spoken on every side. I can 
only thank you again and again. Let me tell you 
of what one of my predecessors said — I think 
many of you knew him — himself a very great 
lawyer, Mr. Phelps. Before I left America to 
come and take up my office here he called upon 
me and he said, " Mr. Choate, the best nights that 
you will have in England are those that you will 
pass with the Bench and the Bar." '' The law- 
yers," said he, " are the best company in Eng- 
land, and I advise you to lose no opportunity of 
cultivating their friendship. You certainly will 
have your reward." My Lord Chancellor and 
gentlemen, I have faithfully followed his advice 
and I have my reward to-night. No one ever had 
one more rich and generous. I shall carry the 
memory of it with me as long as I live, and I think 
I shall be attracted by the love of my professional 
brethren to visit these shores as often as I can. 



269 



FAREWELL 



\5 



FAREWELL 

Address at the Farewell Banquet given to Mr. Choate, hy the Lord 
Mayor at the Mansion House May 5th, 1905. 

MY Lord Mayor, Mr. Balfour, my Lords and 
Gentlemen, — Certainly this is the crowning 
hour of my life. At any rate, it is positively my 
last farewell benefit upon the English stage. To 
be received and feted by the Lord Mayor of Lon- 
don, who holds the most unique and picturesque 
office in the kingdom, who bears upon his breast 
the badge which his predecessors in direct suc- 
cession have worn for more than seven hundred 
years, the Chief Magistrate of this wonderful 
City, the centre of the world's commerce and the 
seat of the British Empire; to have my health 
proposed and my obituary pronounced by the 
Prime Minister, who bears upon his ample shoul- 
ders all of this great globe which the British 
drum-beat encircles, supported as he is too by 
such a number of possible Prime Ministers of the 
future, all ready and willing in the fulness of 
time, with consummate self-sacrifice, to relieve 
him of this great portion of his duty ; to see pres- 
ent also so many members of that august but 
occult body, the Cabinet, who labor in secret, but 
to-night for my sake have come out into the full 
glare of the bright electric light; to be honored 

273 



FAREWELL 

by the presence of the Foreign Secretary with 
whom I have had such delightful intercourse, 
Lord Lansdowne, from whom no secrets are hid; 
and then to find that so many of the famous men 
of England of all professions, parties, and opin- 
ions have come here to-night as my friends — I 
could look almost every man in this company in 
the face and claim him almost as an old friend — 
I do not dare trust myself to speak at all about 
it. I can only thank the Lord Mayor for his 
magnificent hospitality, and you, all my fellow- 
guests here, for your inspiring presence. I am 
sure that you will indulge me, before I say the 
fatal word " Farewell," in a few words in re- 
sponse to what has been so eloquently said 
to you by the Prime Minister. Altogether too 
much credit has been attributed to me for the 
happy, the delightful relations that now exist be- 
tween our two countries. If I have contributed in 
the least degree to maintain and preserve what 
I found already existing, the last six years will 
be the proudest of my life. 

But, gentlemen, the real credit of this happy 
state of things belongs not to me or to any Am- 
bassador, but it belongs to the two men who are 
responsible, and have now for some years been 
responsible, for the conduct of our relations, no 
longer foreign relations — I mean Lord Lans- 
downe and Mr. Hay. The diplomatist who should 
try to pick a quarrel with Lord Lansdowne would 
be a curious crank indeed ; because he would have 
to pick it all himself; Lord Lansdowne would be 

274 



FAREWELL 

no party to it. And, happily, so it is with Mr. 
Hay. Never were two statesmen more happily 
matched, for the noble game that is entrusted to 
them. When the noble marquis escapes from the 
ennui of Downing street and the tiresome visits 
of Ambassadors, to his beloved retreat in the 
extreme southwest of Ireland, he finds himself in 
the next parish to the United States, with nothing 
between us and him but fresh air and salt water. 
And I think I have noticed that he catches and 
reflects the breezy influences of that close neigh- 
borhood. At any rate, I have always found that 
my best time for dealing with him on American 
questions was when he returned refreshed and 
invigorated from that near approach to the West- 
ern World. Always, the policy of the Foreign 
Office, so far as I have observed it, has been one of 
fairness, frankness, justice and simple truth, and 
I hope that he has found our State Department 
the same. 

No single man can claim exclusive credit in this 
happy result. You all know how constant, how 
unceasing your gracious Sovereigns and our high- 
minded Presidents have always been in the same 
direction. I wish to say here to-night that I have 
never been called into the presence of his Majesty 
the King or of his illustrious mother that I did 
not find them full of expressions of sympathy and 
friendship for the country that I represent. I 
well remember the last interview that it was my 
honor to have with your late illustrious Queen. 
It was immediately after a frightful conflagration 

275 



FAREWELL 

had occurred in America, where many lives were 
lost. She knew all about it, she had studied all 
its details, and was as full of sympathy and sor- 
row as if the disaster had occurred in her own 
dominions. And as for his Majesty, the King, 
why, his instinct for peace is so unceasing, his 
genius for conciliation so perfect, as he has been 
showing to the world in this very last week, that 
it will be impossible hereafter as long as he lives 
for any of the other nations to quarrel with his 
own people. 

I have been asked a thousand times in the last 
three months, ^' Why do you go? " *' Are you 
not sorry to leave England? Are you really 
glad to go home? " Well, in truth, my mind 
and heart are torn asunder by conflicting emo- 
tions. In the first place, on the one hand, I will 
tell you a great secret. I am really suffering from 
homesickness. Not that I love England less, but 
that I love America more, and what Englishman 
will quarrel with me for that? There is no place 
like home, be it ever so homely, or, as the old 
Welsh adage has it, '' east and west, hame is 
best." My friends on this side of the water are 
multiplying every day in numbers and increasing 
in the ardor of their affections. I am sorry to 
say that the great host of my friends on the other 
side are as rapidly diminishing and dwindling 
away. " Part of the host have crossed the flood, 
and part are crossing now," and I have a great 
yearning to be with the waning number. And 
then, on the other hand, to make a clean breast of 

276 



FAEEWELL 

it in this family party, I am running a great risk, 
if I stay here much longer, of contracting a much 
more serious disease than homesickness — I mean 
Anglomania, which many of my countrymen re- 
gard as more dangerous and fatal than even 
cerebro-spinal meningitis. To a young man it is 
absolutely fatal, but to one who has well-nigh 
exhausted his future, the consequences are not 
quite so serious. It was wisely said by one of the 
Presidents of the United States that he would 
not trust a Minister or an Ambassador in Eng- 
land more than four years, because those English 
would be sure to spoil him, and you have done 
your best to spoil me — not as the children of 
Israel spoiled the Egyptians, by taking from them 
all they could lay their hands upon, but by heap- 
ing on my undeserving head all the honors and 
compliments and benefits that you can lay your 
hands upon. And so it is hard to say whether I 
am more glad or more sorry, or on which side of 
the water I shall leave or have the largest half 
of my heart. Mr. Balfour has spoken of the ad- 
vantages that I have had in studying the English 
people, and he wondered what sort of impression 
I should carry home. "Well, I shall carry, in the 
first place, the most delightful personal memo- 
ries — memories of exalting and enduring friend- 
ships formed, of many happy homes visited, of 
boundless hospitality enjoyed. 

But I shall carry away something better than 
that. I shall carry away the highest appreciation 
of those great traits and qualities which make and 

277 



FAEEWELL 

mark your national life — the reign of law abso- 
lutely sovereign and supreme in all parts of the 
land ; individual liberty carried to its highest per- 
fection, perfected by law and subject to it; that 
splendid and burning patriotism which inspires 
your young men when their country calls to risk 
life and all they hold dear for her sake. I recall 
that lofty stanza of Emerson applied to our young 
men when they responded to a similar call : — 

" So nigh is grandeur to our dust, 
So near is God to man ; 
When duty whispers low — ' Thou must ' 
The youth replies, ' I can ! ' " 

I shall carry with me the recollection of that splen- 
did instinct for public life which animates and 
pervades those classes here from whom public 
duty is expected, and the absolute purity of your 
public life which is the necessary result. There 
are so many other things that I witnessed here. 
I wish I could spend time in recalling more of 
them. 

One thing that has struck me from first to last 
here in England is the loyal devotion of all the 
people to the integrity of the Empire, conforming, 
as it does, exactly to our fundamental idea of 
American life that everything must be sacrificed, 
everything else must be sacrificed, if necessary, 
to maintain the sovereignty and integrity of the 
Republic. I came here believing that you were a 
cold and phlegmatic people, not capable of those 

278 



FAEEWELL 

mercurial outbursts of emotion which sometimes 
carry away my own countrymen and those of 
other nations. But I have lived here long enough 
to change my mind and to know you better. I 
have seen you, as Mr. Balfour has said, in all 
the vicissitudes of peace and war, under the 
strain of a tremendous anxiety and apprehensions 
of disaster, and in all the exultation of victory. 
I found that under your cool exterior, your serene 
repose of manner, the hall-mark of the English 
gentleman, which other nations may well envy, 
you carry hearts as warm as ever inspired the 
enthusiasm of any people. I was brought up to 
believe that work, hard work, was the end and 
aim of life — that that was what we were placed 
here for. But on contemplating your best exam- 
ples I have learnt that work is only a means to a 
higher end, to a more rational life, to the develop- 
ment of our best traits and powers for the benefit 
of those around us, and for getting and giving as 
much happiness as the lot of humanity admits. 

Six years ago I came among you an absolute 
stranger upon a mission wholly new to me, but 
from the moment I landed I was no longer a 
stranger. All doors were open to me, endless 
hospitality was showered upon me, and I learnt 
that I had really some useful work to do here. In 
these days of cables and wireless communications, 
when the Foreign Office of each nation is brought 
into actual presence in the capital of every other, 
an American Ambassador who confined himself to 
official duties would have very little work to do. 

279 



FAREWELL 

I was instructed by President McKinley to en- 
deavor to promote the welfare of both countries 
by cultivating the most friendly relations between 
them ; and in obedience to that instruction I have 
gone to and fro among the English people, coming 
in close contact with them, studying them at near 
range for the purpose of discovering the distinc- 
tions and differences, if any, that exist between 
us. I have endeavored to make them better ac- 
quainted with my own country, its history, its 
institutions, its great names, for the purpose of 
showing them that really the difference between 
an Englishman and an American is only skin deep, 
that under different historical forms we pursue 
with equal success the same great objects of lib- 
erty, of justice, of the public welfare, and that our 
interests are so inextricably interwoven that we 
would not, if we could, and could not if we would, 
escape the necessity of an abiding and perpetual 
friendship* I have no doubt now, and can have 
no doubt, about the permanence of the peace which 
now exists between us. War between these two 
great nations would be an inexplicable impossi- 
bility. We have got along without it for the last 
ninety years; we shall get along perfectly well 
without it for the next nine hundred years — ab- 
solutely so. 

The gravest questions have arisen during this 
protracted period of peace, questions which other 
nations might have made causes for war, and we 
have settled them all without a single exception 
by resort to the peaceful mode of arbitration, to 

280 



FAEEWELL 

the principle of which Senate and people are all 
equally committed. You must not be troubled by 
hearing of any domestic discussion as to how this 
happy result of leaving every question that may 
arise between us to final settlement by arbitration 
can best be brought about. In the practical ap- 
plication of the principle we have never yet failed 
in the past, and we shall never fail in the future. 
Of course, as you all know, there are questions 
which are not capable of arbitration, but no such 
questions are possible, as it seems to me, to arise 
between your nation and ours. Our good under- 
standing is now complete and perfect; our in- 
terests are more interwoven than ever before; 
our knowledge of each other is greater and closer 
than ever before, and every year and every day 
it is growing closer. It means very much that 
our multitudinous visits to your shores have been 
responded to in a single season by return visits 
of such men as the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
the Bishops of Hereford and Ripon, Lord Dart- 
mouth, Mr. Bryce and Mr. Morley; and, if I am 
rightly informed — if I am not mistaken — in the 
event of any change of Government the retiring 
Ministers would follow their example, and they 
would find in the capacious bosom of our broad 
Republic the rest for which they were seeking 
and the new life and inspiration which would 
bring them home for the next rebound. And I 
really believe that, if you follow the advice of 
his Grace and these returned statesmen, a visit 
to America might be made hereafter an absolute 

281 



FAREWELL 

qualification in the education of a British states- 
man. 

Our literature on both sides is filled and sat- 
urated with our good understanding. The most 
recent eminent historian of Great Britain ex- 
hausts the power of eulogy in dwelling upon the 
merits of those arch Republicans, Greorge Wash- 
ington and Alexander Hamilton, and even of Ben- 
jamin Franklin, who snatched the lightning from, 
the clouds and the sceptre from tyrants. And it 
has also been discovered what we always knew — 
that my predecessor, Mr. Adams, who stood here 
like a rock for the interests of his country in days 
most perilous to our peace, has really proved to 
be in the end the best friend of both countries, as 
Mr. Herbert Paul, in his last volume, for which 
I thank him, declares him to have been. He says 
that at Geneva he saved the arbitration from col- 
lapse and the two nations from falling apart, and 
he boldly suggests that he is entitled to have a 
monument at Westminster as well as at Washing- 
ton. I thank him for that. Then, on the other 
side you have heard a good deal, and I have heard 
a good deal, of the rancor and bitterness that had 
grown into the American school-books, especially 
the school histories, bringing down to present 
times the hard feelings of our former conflicts ; 
but Mr. Goldwin Smith, whose name you will all 
respect as an historian, in his very recent address 
before the American Historical Association, de- 
clared that, having heard a great deal about this 
vice in the school histories in use in America, he 

282 



FAEEWELL 

made a collection of our school books of the pres- 
ent day and examined them, and he expresses the 
positive belief that there is very little in them 
which could give offense to any reasonable Eng- 
lishman. 

Then you heard what my successor, Mr. White- 
law Reid, who will soon be with you, said recently 
in New York. Let me read it to you, for it is a 
very good introduction of him to this audience. 
He said that international good will '' after all 
is no longer a subject of much concern. We do 
not continue to worry over an object of national 
or international desire when it has already been 
attained. We are content to enjoy it." The good 
will between your country and this already exists. 
Never at any stage of our history has it been so 
generally taken as a matter of course on both 
sides of the Atlantic. And let me say here that 
you will find my successor — you will recognize 
him as a life-long advocate of friendly relations 
between England and our own country. He will 
come among you as an old friend. You have re- 
ceived him before on several most distinguished 
and brilliant missions. His experience and 
diplomacy, his knowledge of affairs, his versatil- 
ity are well known, and I am sure that you will 
give him a good old-fashioned, hearty British 
welcome. 

Now, serene and secure as our peace is, I am 
not so foolish as to indulge the hope that it will 
never be disturbed. Untoward events will hap- 
pen, unfortunate things will be said, something 

283 



FAEEWELL 

or other will happen that will for the moment 
disturb the serenity of our peaceful relations. 
And how are these threats of disaster to be 
avoided ? Standing here by the side of your pred- 
ecessor, eight years ago, Lord Salisbury said that 
there was nothing in the traditions of Govern- 
ment, nothing in the tendencies of official life, 
which was any danger, if any existed, to good re- 
lations. '* Take care," he said, ^' of the unofficial 
people, and I will see that the official people never 
make any war ; ' ' and he went on to speak of that 
public opinion which dominated Governments 
then and which has since grown to dominate them 
still more. If any such unhappy occurrences do 
arise, we are to be tided over them by public 
opinion and by that great exponent of public 
opinion and guide of the public conscience — a 
high-minded and patriotic Press on both sides of 
the Atlantic. If the Press does its best to mini- 
mize such untoward events and to keep the people 
cool till sober second thoughts come we shall 
all be glad; but if they stir up the embers and 
fan the flames and pile on the fuel, they may get 
up a conflagration which will tax all the inter- 
national powers of the fire brigade commanded by 
Lord Lansdowne and Mr. Hay to extinguish. 

And now why waste a night in words when I 
only came here to say a single word? I bid you, 
and through you the people of England, farewell 
with infinite regret, carrying with me the most 
precious memories and the best opinions and a 
mind enlarged and improved by my six years 

284 



FAREWELL 

here, having learned to take a broader and a hap- 
pier view of our relations and the possibilities of 
our two peoples than I had before ; and I end as 
I began, by thanking the Lord Mayor for his 
boundless hospitality and for giving us this splen- 
did occasion for the interchange of friendly senti- 
ments between two great and friendly peoples. 



285 



JOHN HARVARD 



JOHN HARVARD 

Address at the unveiling of the Harvard Memorial Window presented 
hy Mr, Choate to the Dean and Chapter of St. Saviour's Church 
(Southwark Cathedral), May 23d, 1905. 

"IMT Y Lord Bishop, I may be permitted to state in 
•^^ a few words my object and purpose in pre- 
senting the window to the Cathedral. I desired to 
signalize my long residence in London by an ap- 
propriate gift which should be in itself emblem- 
'atical of the deepseated and abiding relations of 
friendship which happily unite our two countries. 
As a loyal son of Harvard, I thought that nothing 
could be more fitting than a permanent memorial 
here of the principal founder of Harvard Univer- 
sity. John Harvard was born in this ancient 
borough, close by the end of London Bridge, and 
baptized in this venerable church in 1607, almost 
three centuries ago. Educated at Emmanuel Col- 
lege in Cambridge, where he spent eight years, 
during at least four of which Milton was at 
Christ's, he and Milton received substantially the 
same nurture and discipline, and must often have 
been thrown together. At any rate, he imbibed 
something of the same spirit as Milton, for his 
contemporaries speak of him as a scholar and 
pious in his life. Seeking larger freedom of 
thought than could be found in the London of that 

289 



JOHN HARVARD 

day, he made his way to Massachusetts, and there, 
within two years of his arrival, he died, prema- 
turely, as it then seemed, but in the fulness and 
perfection of time, as is now manifest ; for, find- 
ing the infant colony struggling without means to 
establish a college in the wilderness, in the first 
decade of its settlement, he bequeathed to its 
foundation his library and half of his considerable 
fortune, and, what was better still, his name, 
which has now become so illustrious. The colonial 
record is quaint and touching : — " After God had 
carried us safe to New England and we had 
builded our homes, provided necessaries for our 
livelihood, reared convenient places for God's 
worship, and settled the civic government, one of 
the next things we longed for and looked after 
was to advance learning and perpetuate it to pos- 
terity, dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to 
our churches when our present ministers shall lie 
in the dust. And as we were thinking and consult- 
ing how to effect this great work, it pleased God 
to stir up the heart of one Mr. Harvard (a godly 
gentleman and lover of learning then living among 
us) to give the one-half of his estate (it being in 
all about £1,700) towards the erecting of a college, 
and all his library. After him another gave £300, 
others after them cast in more, and the public 
hand of the State added the rest. The college was 
by public consent appointed to be at Cambridge, 
a place very pleasant and accommodate, and is 
called according to the name of its first founder, 
Harvard College." It assumed in its arms, as 

290 



JOHN HARVARD 

you will see in the window, a double motto — Veri- 
tas, truth, a word broad enough to embrace all 
knowledge, human and divine; and, what meant 
the same thing, Christo et Ecclesiae, to Christ and 
his Church, that the supply of godly ministers 
might never fail. 

And now, after the lapse of three centuries, the 
little college in the pathless wilderness has become 
a great and splendid University, strong in pres- 
tige and renown, rich in endowments, and richer 
still in the pious loyalty of its sons, who supply 
all its wants upon demand with liberal hand. It 
is not unworthy to be compared with Oxford and 
Cambridge, those ancient nurseries of learning 
from which it drew its first life. And the name 
of John Harvard shares the fame which mankind 
accords to the founders of States. From the be- 
ginning until now it has occupied the foremost 
place in America as a radiating source of light 
and reading. In all the great movements of prog- 
ress by which the United States have advanced 
from that little handful of storm-swept immi- 
grants on the Atlantic coast to the Imperial Re- 
public of to-day, Harvard University and its sons 
have had their full share ; and without disparage- 
ment to her younger sisters, who are many and 
great, it may truly be said that, as she was first 
in time, she has always been first in position and 
influence; and especially in the matter of educa- 
tion, which is and always has been the chief indus- 
try of America, she has always led and still leads 
the way. So considerable have been the contribu- 

291 



JOHN HARVARD 

tions of her sons to the public and social and 
intellectual life of the nation that, if all other 
books and papers were destroyed, its history- 
could be fairly reproduced from the Harvard Uni- 
versity Catalogue, and from what is known of the 
lives of the alumni there registered. And if you 
ask if she is still true to her ancient watchwords 
Veritas and Christo et Ecclesiae, I can answer 
that, in our own time, in a single quarter of a 
century, she has sent forth Phillips Brooks to be 
a pillar of Christ and the Church, and Theodore 
Roosevelt to be a champion of the truth, and thou- 
sands more who in humble spheres follow in their 
footsteps and share their faith and their hope. 

Thus the name of John Harvard, unknown and 
of little account when he left England, has been 
a benediction to the new world, and his timely and 
generous act has borne fruit a millionfold. Com- 
ing back to the very beginning of things, we are 
here to-day to lay a wreath upon his shrine. I 
hope that this memorial, which the Dean and 
Chapter have kindly consented to accept from my 
hands, will long remain for Americans to come 
and see the very spot where one of their proudest 
institutions had its origin, and to remind all Eng- 
lishmen who visit it how inseparable we are in 
history and destiny. I hope, also, that it may tend 
to keep alive the kindred spirit between the Uni- 
versities of the two countries; for Harvard is 
just as surely the offspring of Cambridge and Ox- 
ford, and the own daughter of Emmanuel, as old 
England is the mother of New England. In the 

292 



JOHN HARVARD 

earlier period of the colony we had one hundred 
teachers from Oxford and Cambridge, and of 
these seventy were from Cambridge, and of these 
again twenty were from Emmanuel. So long as 
ideas rule the world let all the Universities of 
both countries stand together for truth, and with 
one voice let them say to the youth of both lands, 
'* Take fast hold of instruction. Let her not go, 
for she is thy life." I am under deep obligations 
to the Dean and Chapter for consenting to receive 
and cherish this gift, and to Mr. LaFarge, the 
distinguished artist, for the noble manner in 
which he has designed and executed it. 



293 



k 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



